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February 1986

& & - « -' -r *

Gold Medals for

THE EIDOLON

Activision ^ r

Gremlin Graphics

Ocean's master music maestro

IMIiMJlSM

flrtfe &jM BMM M

A plane crash in the dark forests
infamous as it is unknown
Is&ffpliHng into the jungle
untold adventure set against the
sceneries . . .

the ghostlike images
a quest of unimaginable combat ahe
' eerie backdrop of gripping jungle
the mesmerising compulsion that is . . . the Legend of

the Amazon Women.

In the treacherous jungles of South America the rule of survival is

victory against all odds

LEAVE THE REST BEHIND

ohn ny

Max Throttle

MAIL ORDER

Enclose crossed cheque/PO made payable to
Firebird Software, for £14.95 cassette or
£17.95 disc, to Kay Newman
FREEPOST FIREBIRD; Wellington House,
Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9DL

FIREBIRD SOFTWARE * WELLINGTON HOUSE
UPPER ST MARTIN’S LANE LONDON WC2H 9DL

FIREBIRD IS A TRADEMARK OF BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLC

REVS IS A TRADEMARK OF ACORNSOFT LTD

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 5

ISSUE 10 FEBRUARY 1986

Editor

Roger Kean

Assistant Editor

Gary Penn

Sub-editor

Sean Masterson

Software Editor Julian Rignalt

Software Reviewers Gary Liddon,

Paul Sumner

Staff Writer Lloyd Mangram
Art Editor Oliver Frey
Art Director Dick Shiner
Production Controller
David Western

Production Gordon Druce, Tony
Lorton

Process camera Matthew
Uffindell

Photographer Cameron Pound
Client Liaison Roger Bennett
Subscriptions Denise Roberts
Mail Order Carol Kinsey

Stott

Editorial and production:

1/2 King Street, Ludlow,
Shropshire SY8 1AQ
® 0584 5851

Mail order and subscriptions

PO Box 10, Ludlow, Shropshire
SY8 1DB
® 0584 5620

Printed in England by Redwood
Web Offset, Yeoman Way,
Trowbridge, Wilts. Colour
origination by Scan Studios,
Wallace Road, London N1

Distributed by COMAG, Tavistock
Road, West Drayton, Middx UB7
7QE

No material may be reproduced in
whole or in part without the written
consent of the copyright holders. We
cannot undertake to return any written
or photographic material sent in to
ZZAP! 64 magazine unless
accompanied by a suitably stamped
addressed envelope. Unsolicited
written or photo material which may
be used in the magazine is paid for at
our current rates.

Rockford appears in Z2AP! 64 by
kind permission of First Star Inc.,
whose copyright he remains.

A NEWSFIELD PUBLICATION
Cover by Oliver Frey

mZmtmu®

HOT GAMES FOR FEBRUARY
18 FIGHT NIGHT

You've already read the review, now we give the
comments and ratings for this Sizzier.

20 BOUNDER

Gremlin Graphics leap into action with this
unusual Gold Medal game.

28 THE EIDOLON

Activision present the new Lucasfilm Gold Medal
mind-epic with superb dragon animation.

34 DEUS EX MACH IN A
Repackaged by Electric Dreams, this year-old
Automata 'experience' re-emerges as fresh and
original as ever.

FEBRUARY SPECIALS

4 7 A CHA T WITH TONY CROWTHER
First of an irregular series featuring Gary Liddon
on his round of the national highstreets, bumping
into famous programmers for a gossip.

SO MARTIN GALWA Y

Sean Masterson interviews the man behind much
of the music on Ocean games.

62 THE ART GALLERY

In the first of our irregular articles related to
Compunet, we bring you some example of
computer art taken direct from the net.

95 LUCASFILM INTERVIEW

In Part One of a ZZAP! exclusive, Gary Penn gets

on the phone to Los Angeles to talk to the team

L h «iR»?.l‘1SSi BALLBLAZER ' FRACTALUS,
KORONIS RIFT and now THE EIDOLON.

" WHO’s TV&

Wieupwr

ZZAP SECTIONS
9 EDITORIAL

How the ratings work, state of software and
indexes.

II ZZAPRRAP

Lloyd and the team answer your letters as best
they can, deluged as they are with Pet Person
Problems . . .

41 NEWSFLASH

The latest bits and pieces from around and about.

55 ZZAP TIPS

More cheats, pokes and genuine help from Gary
Penn, also part two of the UNDERWURLDE map.

Z?£J* ROMCLES OF THE white wizard

Ol Whitey gets to grips with some new
adventures like WORM IN PARADISE from Level 9
and takes an early look at LORD OF THE RINGS.

79 SHADOW SPIEL
The mysterious figure from Compunet, The
Shadow, tells it like it is with up and comina
games. 3

104 ZZAP STRATEGY

Sean Masterson takes a trip down memory lane
back to the Falklands.

III THE TERMINAL MAN

und^ S Arcadians continue their quest for

PRIZE COMPETITIONS
44MASTERTRONIC GO MAD

Win a crazy day out with Mastertronic by
completing a spy story.

76 BOUNDALONG WITH GREMLIN

An exciting comp to celebrate BOUNDER'S Gold
Medal

82 IT'S ALL IN THE MIND
Activision are offering a disk drive, all four
Lucasfilm games on disk and cassette and 50
copies of their Gold Medal latest, THE EIDOLON to
winners of a ZZAP! Reviewer mind probe.

4 * ^ y^y

The next issue of ZZAP! goes on sale from

February 9th — missing it could lead to
termination with extreme prejudice

John Menzies

Your driving skills will be driven to
the limit in this simulation of the
hit T.V. series. Just you and a car
named'iCITT" - the ultimate

driving team!

Warrior robots in disguise.
Earth has been invaded by
powerful robots from the
planet Cybertron.

Transform into the role of the
heroic autobots (Jazz, Hound,
Mirage and Optimus Prime) in.
their deadly battle with the evil
decepticons.

TRANSFORMERS - More
than meets
the eye!

COMMC

Ocean House • 6 Central Street • Manchester • M 5
W) whcmith rjMBI Al-J Will WOOLWOKTH ft

Ocean Software is available from selected branches of

k f

nr \ m

lit,-

The box-office smash hits your
screen with all the high-energy
drama that only Rambo can
S create. Take the role of
Sylvester Stallone in the
explosive all-action
battle scenes.

Become the hunter and
the hunted in this
breathtaking simulation
of the famous film and

TV series with
Hyperthrust feature,
helicopter attacks and
daring rescue attempts
that only the man and
machine combination of
Street Hawk can survive.
/A| I D Don't miss it -

m m burn tread on

jDORE 64 the streets!

y j

up /

m w _

mum »

SA:5NS Telephone 061-832 6633 • Telex 669977
f , ASKYS , Rumbelows. Greens . Spectrum Shops and all good software dealers. Trade enquiries welcome.

WIRE HITS

FROM THE

COMPUTER DREAMLAND

TWO EXCITING GAMES

AVAILABLE ON COMMODORE 64/128 & ATARI

Electric Dreams, Unit 10, The Parkway Industrial Centre, Birmingham B7 4LY. Telephone: 021-359 3020 Telex. 337268

THEZZAP!

RATINGS

It's some time since we carried
details on the games review
ratings in ZZAP! Since they were
last seen, a host of new readers
have joined us, not least, those
from the Far East and Australia,
so it seems an appropriate
moment, at the start of a new
software year, to repeat the vital
statistics.

PRESENTATION: Packaging,
printed instructions, on-screen
instructions, loading, play
options, program facilities
(including things like ease of
joystick or keyboard control),
on-screen impression —
everything except the game
itself.

GRAPHICS: Variety, detail and
effectiveness of screen pictures,
quality of animation,
smoothness of movement.

OVERALL: With all the above
ratings in, this is IT! — what the
reviewers think in general.

HOW TO USE THE
RATINGS

Most importantly, you must
realises that ratings are only a
guide, important in the context
of the review itself, but
secondary to what is written. Of
the ratings, some are more
important than others as a
buying consideration.
PRESENTATION is only of
moderate importance, for
instance, butyou may have your
own set of criteria in judging
what we say. The ratings are
arrived at with discussion
among the various reviewers,
and of course the results cannot
be considered as infallible — the
reviewers are only human (at
least they think so), and
sometimes there is a radical
disagreement which inevitably
affects the way the ratings come
out.

SOUND: Variety and
effectiveness of sound effects,
quality both technically and
aesthetically of music. Also:
does sound annoy?

HOOKABILITY: How strongly
does the game make you want
to play it and keep playing it?

LASTABILITY: How long will it
keep its hold on you?

VALUE FOR MONEY: Takes
into accountthe price plus all the
above ratings.

THE ZZAP! LABELS

GOLD MEDAL AWARD:

Definitely a game above all
others in the month of review.
There may not be a Gold Medal
game every issue, but if there is,
get it! Just occasionally there
may be more than one . . .
SIZZLER: Hot games of the
month — must normally score
around 90%. We reckon any
ZZAP! Sizzler is a great buy,
unless you really hate that
particular type of game.

GAMES REVIEWED IN THIS ISSUE

Blade Runner
Bounder
Causes of Chaos
Commando
Desert Fox
Deus Ex Machina
The Eidolon
Falklands 82
Fight Night
Friday the 13th
Gertie Goose
Gyroscope

Masquerade

(GM) 20

One Bite Too Deep

Outlaws

Rambo

Revs (S)

Space Pilot II

(GM) 28

Starion

105

Wild West Hero

Wishbringer

Worm in Paradise

Zorro

ADVERTISERS' INDEX

Activision 64

Beyond 31

English Software 39

Evesham Micro Centre 13
Firebird 4, 107

Gremlin 15

Imagine 46, 89

Insight 44

Ocean 6, 7, 40, 77,

86, 99, 116

Odin 10

Rainbird 27

Realtime 22

Reelax 91

Ultimate 78

US Gold 2,3,8, 19,49,

61,67, 72, 115
WH Smith 17

ZZAP! Back Numbers 93

ZZAP! Binders 43

ZZAP! Caps and T-shirts 94

ZZAP/Gremlin Tracksuits 70

ZZAP! Mail Order 52, 53

GOOD STUFF, BAD
STUFF

It's a fine way to kick off the New
Year, isn't it? A letter
complaining (see RRAP) that I
said unfortunate things about
Commodore software leading
up to Christmas (when I'm sure I
didn't really, but I've replied in
Rrap, so no more on that), and
here we are with the most
divisive issue of ZZAP! I think I
can remember. By which I mean,
at one end there are some really
excellent programs, and at the
other end, some of the worst
we've seen in ZZAP! Towers.
What's happened to the
reasonable middle? Review
journalism should attempt to be
constructive rather than merely
clever at the expense of the
product reviewed, but at times
it's hard to be so when faced
with games that no one can
quite see any point to. Well,
you'll no doubt make up your
own minds, but there's quite a
bit of fairly savage criticism in
the pages of this issue.

However, there's also some
criticism of a different kind from
a new face in the pages of ZZAP!
Art critic Brigitte Van Reuben
joins the ZZAP! Compunet
watchers to look at some
graphic wonders we've picked
up off the net. This is the first
UPLD from the net to the pages
of ZZAP! but there'll be lots
more in future issues. One of the
more interesting pages in
Compunet's ZAP CLUB is
'Shadowspiel' — a new column
that defies description — in fact
it defies most things, but at least
the Shadow (who sees all for he
moves by night) tells the truth —
at least, HE says he does. If
you're not on the net yet, better
get moving . . .

What's the difference between a
SIZZLER and a GOLD MEDAL?

None, as far as layout are
concerned.

The more observant amongst
you will have noticed that Ball-
blazer was a Sizzler last month,
when in fact it should have been
a Gold Medal. Yep, take a closer
look at the ratings- bit high for a
simple Sizzle, eh? It seems that
someone upstairs in Art has bad
eyesight. . . . Anyway, to rectify
the situation, hea r's your very
own do-it-yourself layout kit. All
you need is a sharp knife (a pair
of scissors will do, but make
sure Mummy or Daddy is there
to help) and some glue. Cut
around the necessary bits and
stick them over the offending
Sizzler logo. Simple, eh?

THE MONTHLY SOFTWARE STAR FOR
YOUR US GOLD CALENDAR

Have you seen our super US Gold Caienda
Offer in the last issue of ZZAP!? We joined
forces with US Gold to help you plan your
way through a brighter year of software.
Last month we gave you a six month
calendar in which each month contained c
Red and a Blue star. Between now and
June, we'll be printing oneBlue star in eact
issue of ZZAP! (there r ll be two in the June
issue to complete the first six months). Cu
out the stars and affix them in the
appropriate places on the calendar. US
Gold are printing Red stars, on some of
their games packages, and if you collect a
US Gold title a month, you can cut out the
Red stars and stick them on the calendar a:
well. When the six months are completed,
just follow the instructions on the calendai
and send it into US Gold at Unit 10, The
Parkway Industrial Centre, Heneage
Street, Birmingham B7 4LY to receive a free
game. Then there'll be another six months
calendar with stars to collect! Watch out foi
an exciting Software 86 with your US
GOLD/ZZAP! Calendar!

ZZAP! 64 February 1986

Due to the peculiarities of putting together magazines, I am
now sitting in ZZAP! Towers on a rainy early December
afternoon, trying to pretend that it's long after Christmas —
maybe something like February. No wonder Hermes (1922)
typewriters get frantic. Be that as it may, here we are with
the first proper issue of 1986 — and isn't it a lovely fresh year
(December 85 permitting)?

In this month's 'mixed bag' of correspondence, we include
some staff portraits done by Brian Proudfoot of Errol,
Perthshire. We all thought they showed a real perception of
the people and should be included. Comments with each
portrait! For his efforts, Brian gets £15 worth of software.

But big preoccupation of the month is undoubtedly Little
Computer People problems. Once discovered, they never
seem to go away. So I've included quite a few problems and
we'll see if we can help you settle them in happily. The £20
worth of software this month, then goes to the writer below
for his simple enjoyment of his new pet . . .

LCP CONRAD

Dear Lloyd,

Just thought I'd put pen to
aper . . . er well, printing
ead to thermal paper, to let
you know about Conrad. Yes
you've guessed, he's my
Little Computer Person. I
bought him from the
delectable Carol Kinsey last
week. He's a real cool dude
with his blonde hair and
shades (he wears them in the
shower and in bed), and the
way he struts around the
house .

Oh yes, nearly forgot,
is/was Adam a good loser at
Card War? Conrad certainly
isn't, if I beat him he sulks for

hours. Anyway I won't bore
you with any more of my
ramblings, just pass on the
word that LCPs are really
worth having and are a lot of
fun.

Peter Willain, Shropshire

They certainty are
compulsive viewing once
you get started. Gary Penn
says that he never managed
to beat Adam at Card War,
though whether that reflects
on Adam 's abilities as a card
sharp or Penn's miserable
failure on the wheel o f
fortune, goodness only
knows!

I DISAGREE

Dear Lloyd,

Upon opening my
December issue of ZZAP!, I
stumbled upon Roger Kean's
editorial column. After re-
reading it a number of times,
I feel I really MUST write in
disagreement. Not with his
assumptions on whether it
would be a Commodore or
Sinclair or Amstrad
Christmas. Oh no — that was

fair criticism. The point that
I'm trying to make concerns
this quote

' . . . and a disappointing
release schedule for the 64.'

What! I find this hard to
believe, especially with the
flood of Christmas releases.
For example; Rambo, Adrian
Mole, Little Computer
People, Fight Night, Bata/yx,
Scarabaeus, Friday the 13th,
Death Star Interceptor II,
Commando, Knight Rider,

Imhotep, Underwur/de,

Pa rad ro id \ Lord of the Rings,
Superman, Enigma Force,
Dr. Who and the Mines of
Terror, Bouncer, Quake 1,
Dan Dare, Starquake,

Ball blazer. Nexus, Zoids, The
Young Ones, YieArKung Fu,
Fighting Warrior, Skool Daze
64, Robin of the Wood,
Mugsy's Revenge, Daley's
Supertest, Zorro, ACE, Who
Dares Wins II, I of the Mask,
Scooby Doo, Critical Mass,
Starion, Mercenary, Arc of
Yesod, /CUPS,

Transformers,

Thunderbirds, Wizard . . . etc.

If this is a disappointing
release schedule then I've
just won the Eurovision
Song Contest!

Not being a Spectrum or
Amstrad owner I cannot
comment on how many
games are coming out over
this festive period for them,
but I have a hunch that
conversions for the Speccy
and 64 will constitute the
bulk of Christmas software
for the Amstrad.

Perhaps Roger now
PREFERS the Amstrad and
wants to let us know.

Perhaps not, but to me

PENN-ULTIMATE

Dear ZZAP!

I am putting pen to paper
about Penn. Does he have an
'O' level in 'How to be a
Miseryguts?' He hardly ever
likes any of the games that
he reviews. He should take a
tip from Jazza Ringnuts.
Jazza is a great reviewer.
Why not let Rockford take
over from Penn? I'm sure
he'd do a much better job.
And you can slag off a certain
computer with squelchy
rubber keys a bit more
please.

Treat Rockford with the
upmost respect at all times,

Christmas 85 shows a
fantastic release of
high-quality games and even
if other ' machines have
more (say trebb/e) releases,
so what! My 64 and / believe
that quality is better than
quantity. And there's still
1986 to go and that's
anyone r s guess . . .

John Pettigrew, Fife,
Scotland

tasked Roger for his reaction
to this (always a hazardous
business, since everyone
KNOWS he's AL WA YS right)
and he had this to say:

' Actually the picture does
look better this side of
Christmas than it did the
other, except loads of the
titles you mention, having
been seen, didn't strike us as
being that hot, and anyway,
quite a few still aren 't
released. My comments
were not intended to place a
bias on any of the machines
mentioned, and had nothing
whatsoever to do with
personal preferences. '

There you go, John —
straight from the horse's
mouth — wups!

as he is the star of ZZAP!

Tim Preston, River, Kent

You're quite wrong, Tim,
Gary likes many games —
you only have to look closely
at the reviews to see that he's
no different really from any
of the others in that respect,
each having their own
personal angles. I'm far more
concerned about this
appalling inferiority complex
you seem to suffer. Hasn't
anyone told you that the 64 is
a fine machine, and really
you don 't have to see other
machines put down to prove
the point?

►

•WEtC/ 1 '

ZZAP! 64 February 1986

v „

LET S ALL SPEAK
STRINE

Dear ZZAP!

Here I am, hangin' by me
feet an' trying to read this
'ere ZZAP! magazine. (Youse
poms always printthingsthe
wrong way up, howze us
Ozzies supposed to read
'em)? There's a bunch of
flaming Gal must be what

A HAPPY READER
WRITES . . .

DearThingy,

Alright, I am not
Australian, I am not a nun or
even a vicar. I haven't even
got a score of 20,000 on
Dropzone and I hate
Entombed. But, please can
you print this letter and make
me happy. David
Fairweather, Darwen,
Lancashire

Nice to have some happy
readers at least . . .

they call a 'Shiela'. Well the
subscription offers are now
open for much longer than
they used to be as long as
you are a bona-fide colonial
and can send us some proof
— a set of handcuffs or leg
irons would do, or the prison
ship embarkation date —
okay, just an address and
some money then.

MINI-PROG

Dear ZZAP!

While I was in a state of
semi-consciousness during
a Terry Wogan Show, I
received pyschic messages
from frustrated 64 owners
something like '! want to use
more than the SHIFT & RUN/
STOP keys.'

Tm dying to write a one-
liner.

'How about a short
program to imitate the
sound of an engine?' etc, etc .

• •

Well all your wishes can be
answered as it's such a
pleasure to assist the hard
working ZZAP! team. I
devoted a whole minute to
writing the WORLD'S
SHORTEST program to
produce the sound of an
engine!!

1 S equals 54296: POKE
S,15: POKE S,0: GOTO 1
Impressive huh?

u Pa, ? 9/ London

PS How about some ZZAP»
goodies?

No, no Mr Pang. You've got
to do better than that, apart
from which, HI now get into
serious trouble for
introducing listings into
ZZAP !

BOUtfdrtC*

JMTO My

Brian Proudfoot has caught some of the more hidden features
of Sean Masterson In this portrait — the rakish set of the
teeth, the strong eyebrows with their jolly angles, that
nevertheless suggest a person who brooks no disagreement.
Clearly seen here. Is the face of a man who tells you what a
slow, careful driver he Is, when really you know he never does
less than 40 on the M 1 .

12 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

CARTRIDGES SAVE
THE DAY

Dear Lloyd,

Countless complaints
have been made by the
Software Houses about how
much pirating goes on in the
software world. The main
threat not coming from
piracy between fellow 64
owners, but from software
thieves who sell pirated
software for financial gain.
Both these problems could
be lessened greatly, if not
totally killed off. Surely you
could sell software in
cartridge form. I realise that
this action would not be
suitable for all computers but
it would certainly be okay for
our beloved 64s. This would
not only make it impossible
for friends to copy the
software, but I would
imagine that it would make
life very difficult for
commercial pirates.
Cartridge games also have
other advantages, no more
waiting for programs to load,
just plug in and you're away.
Cartridges are also more
durable than cassettes, and
much larger programs can
be run; the memory of the
computer not restricting the
software. I could not see that
the software houses would
be justified in raising their
prices for cartridges either as
with piracy controlled the
software houses would be
saving £150 millions (as
quoted in ZZAP!), and

perhaps even making games
cheaper. The only company
to really begin using
cartridges is Commodore
themselves, managing to
produce games at about the
normal price of a cassette
anyway. So please, do you
know why there aren't more
cartridge games, not only for
the 64 but for other machines
as well?

Colin Hutt, Lowestoft,
Suffolk./ think you have a
rose-tinted view of ROM
Cartridges, Colin.
Commodore are the only
company to really use them,
and even they hardly offer
any — for good reason. First,
the production costs would
rocket, and although that
might eventually be offset by
bigger sales due to lack of
piracy, it's a very doubtful
argument. Because of the
cost of blowing EPROMs or
producing ROMs, they have
to be produced in very large
quantities to be economic.
Should a game flop, then the
software house would be left
with a vast amount of totally
unusable cartridges.

Second ; you won 't get past
the memory size of the 64,
even with a cartridge, so
larger games are not actually
made any more possible.
Most Commodore cartridges
are actually two years or
more old, they don't produce
them today because it
doesn't make economic
sense.

ZZAP ANTICS

Dear ZZAP!

One day, whilst browsing
through your wondrous
magazine, my eyes paused
at the 'ZZAPSTICK' section,
for there at the bottom of the
page in big bold letters was
the word AMTIX!

Shock, horror! ! What was
this!? I asked myself, is
Jeremy Spencer trying to
take control of the most
popular mag in the universe?
Or is ZZAP! suffering from a
mild dose of schizophrenia?
Adge, West Auckland, Co
Durham

More a case of mild
dementia, actually. One of
our wondrous layout artists
had his mind on other things
at the time and dreamily
stuck down an AMTIX! 'page
bottom' instead of a ZZAP!
one. It's okay now, though,
he was hung for forty
minutes in the Ludlow stocks
while the locals tortured him
by reading out passages
from Jeremy's book 'How To
Get The Most from CP/M ' —
generally reckoned to be the
most exciting thing since the
Chinese developed the water
torture.

° r machine

* u «ea

"£l ** *££*&****.

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64 It does

converted

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I LIKE LLOYD

Dear ZZAP!

I think your magazine is
excellent but I am writing to
suggest a few ways of
improving it.

Firstly, now about
introducing a monthly
review of books and
incorporating a marking

system similartothegames?

I think a monthly quiz
page(s) would be welcomed
by most readers. We like
reading through all the
pages of writing, but we like
to stretch our brains a bit
now and then. I thouqhtyour
MASTER BLASTER was
excellent on the two
occasions you used it in the
magazine, but having it
monthly would be first class.

A budget games section,
reviewing in detail the

GREENSLEEVES

DearZZAP!,

In issue seven of your
magazine you said that Gary
Penn had killed his pet
person Adam. However, I
didn't give my pet person,
Karl, food or water for nearly
twenty hours, yet all he did

was very disappointing
because I am stuck with the
same pet person who always
wants to play the piano.
Stephen McIntosh, Hamilton
PS Will someone please kill
Rockford!?

ft sounds to me like you
should be back safely
zapping aliens. You're
obviously not fit to keep pets,
turning them green and
wanting them killed off. Have
you ever considered being
nice to Karl for a change, and
then maybe he wouldn't just
play the piano ? No, of course
not, because, Stephen, you
are the sort who pulls wings
off flies and then pretends
they're grounded DHL
couriers. Another squeak out
of you and I'll have the
RSPCLCPseton you!

games that we can afford
easily, costing less than
£ 6 . 00 .

How about introducing a
section on the inside of the
64, telling us about the
internal systems and how
they work? Perhaps a
peripheral section could look
at new hardware as it
becomes available too?
Please do not introduce
listings into the magazine as
these downrate the mag and
take up too much room and
virtually never work.

I especially like Lloyd
Mangram and the ways that
he gives people guff back like
'Filthy Fred' and K Reynolds
(remember 'Dear Crap')?

Why don't you give
Rockford his own page? He is
beginning to get on my wick
and is a pain in the
(continued page 202).

Anyways, I think you're all
great and keep up the good
work.

Garry Barrett, Burton-Upon-
Trent

The editorial team do get
quite a few books sent
through for review, but as no
one except Sean Masterson
and myself can read,
reviewing them is a bit
difficult. Seriously folks,
most are a bit technical, you
know the sort of thing,

' Budget Dietary
Progamming Flow Chart
T echniques for the Beginner '
and so on. Considering how
many writers continue to
argue we should concentrate
more on the games than the
technical, we're obviously a
bit wary of the subject. That
goes for the innnards of your
computer as well, although
Gary L/ddon does enjoy a
technical bash now and
again between cups of
steaming hot tea.

Thanks for all your other
suggestions and for liking
me (well that's not difficult,
let's face it), /suspect the
ZZAP! Quiz may well be
fairly regular, as it seems to
be very popular, but I can't
promise that it will be what
you call ' brain-stretching '!

^GGfcfcoFF/M

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ZZAP! 64 February 1986 13

RIGNALL CHEATS

Dear Lloyd,

Being among your avid
readership, I'm afraid I must
be one of the boring millions
wanting to congratulate you
and the team on the
production of such a
first-rate mag.

The 64 has deserved a
publication of ZZAP's calibre
for a long time, and although
the 64 has magazines just for
it, they ail pall into
insignificance beside ZZAP!
(no.. I do mean it!)

I do enjoy reading it
because of the 'meaty
spreads' you do on first-class
games (The Exploding Fist
was particularly good) and
that most of the reviews are
in full colour.

I'd love to see a review of
Commando if you've got one
in the pipeline (no pun
intended) but I wonder if it
can be quite as good as the
splendid arcade version?

By the way, did you know
about the cheat on Thing ? I
guess you do otherwise
Riggers wouldn't be able to
get such ridiculously high
(obviously fixed) scores. You
press the letters spelling

% ,

• • a

DearZzap!

Help! Please!

I have a major problem
with my Little Computer
Person. His name is Kent and
seems quite happy and
comfortable — in fact he told
me that he is considering
getting a room-mate and
paying rent!

The problem is that Kent
suffers form insomnia! He
refuses to go to bed, even at
2.30 in the morning. He's
also got a bowel problem
judging by the amount of
times he goes to the toilet,
but that's another matter.

Can anybody, (except that
cold-blooded murderer
Gary), help us?

The Phantom Noddy Killer,
Barnetby, Humberside

Fear not, Phant, help is at
hand. Even as i write,
representation is being
made to the LCP Research
Team fora British LCP
Doctor to be made available.
Unfortunately Gary is the
only resident intern we have
on the sta ff until such
happens, and he says he has
come across Kent's problem
before. Short of getting in
some Beecham's Powder, he
can only suggest you talk to
Kent a bit more — or get the
room-mate . . .

THING and (Okay, that's

enough of that! We'll leave
the tips to Gary — LM)

Keep up the good work
with the brill mag and let's
have some more GOOD
quality maps!

Paul Napper, Bishop's
Stortford

PS Hi to Mike in Nailsea.

It's just as well Julian isn 't
here at this moment,
otherwise you would get a
mouthful! As a matter of fact
we kept the cheat mode from
him on the pre-release
copies we had, and of Monty
on the Run, but he
discovered them for himself
very quickly! As for

Commando, well you can
judge for yourself, as it's
reviewed in this issue.

f no on£ WRNTS AA6
I’LL L£f)U€/

14 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

Gary Llddon — now here's a tea fanatic In full swing. Note
how Brian Proudfoot has spotted something no one else has

Gary actually resemble pop singer Marc Almond.

Unfortunately he doesn't sing like him, otherwise we'd
exploit him and make a fortune. Brian also seems to have felt
that there's some Japanese characteristic In Mr Lldd on —
perhaps his propensity for ritualistic professional suicide
when the tea stews.

these letters are cut out from
pink news paper . . .

We gave this to our good
mate the Kangaroo in
Woking. Post your money to
his address. Post now. Post
or die.

MORE DEATH

threats

Poor Gary Penn has been
receiving even more
dastardly threats from the
public over the unfortunate
demise of ADAM, our Little
Computer Person. The plot
seems to be thickening, the
following annonymous
missive was received from
The Cornish Mafia, Welsh
Branch, Cardiff . . .

. . forgive, but never forget!

Actually, / must tell you that
Adam is alive and well and
living in Gary's computer
after an emergency
res u citation phone call from
David Crane, and I've got my
own pet too. He's called
Austin and he looks just like
me . . . AAHHH!

The next one purports to be
from the Ludlow Mafia (who
started the whole thing), be
we know they don't get The
Financial Times, and all

bb£boumd To Be tin

“10 levels of fun make this torture excellent value
for money. Nova rating. Definitely one of those
‘just another go’ games. Game of the month
February ” - Computer Gamer

The most compulsive game I’ve ever
played. If you don’t buy it you’ll never
know what you’ve missed.” says Gary
Penn, Zzap! 64. Gold Medal Award.

97% overall.

£ 9.95

cassette disc

Free with Bounder Metabolis.

Is it a man, is it a bird?

(Commodore 64/128 version only)

£ 12.95

GIVING YOUR
LOAD A HAND

DearZzap!

After going through your
great mag, I couldn't fail to
notice that some people whc
bought games with fast
loaders had annoying
loading problems. This
happened to me when
loading Shadowfire, so six
attempts later and in pure
desperation, I placed my
hand on top of the tape deck
when to my surprise it began
to load. I tried the same
technique with other fast
loaders and found that they
were more likely to load the
rather than having to go
through several attempts at
reloading.

I can't guarantee success,
but if you're trying this, don't
press too hard as it will
distort the tape and you will
never get it to load.

Happy loading (or should I
say Handy Loading)!

Ravin Dhokia, Sutton,

Surrey

! ve heard of some strange
things in my time , but that is
pretty odd I On the other
hand, there's absolutely no
doubt that if you taik nicely to
them, cars go much better
so perhaps it's just that your
deck needs a friendly pat on
the head now and again.
Pushing down on the deck's
flap does increase pressure
on the cassette, which may
well be putting the coded
information area of the
magnetic tape more
squarely in line with your
deck s playback head. Has
anyone else noticed this
technique improve the
loading of games?

Brian's portrait of Gary Penn has recognised the similarity
between this great reviewing hero and that maestro of the
big screen — John Don't Push Me Rambo — or Rocky. See how
Gary's big round eyes are full of loving softw areness. We call It
his 'Paradrold' look. Brian has also captured the slightly
whimsical twitch to the corner of the Penn mouth, usually
visible a few minutes before bacon sarnie time Is announced.

COMPILATION-

Dear Lloyd,

I would like to draw your
attention to a subject that
concerns me at the moment,
namely the vast amount of
compilations that are
currently available, and the
failure of ZZAP! to give them
much space, apart from a
short mention in the odd
News column. I do realise
that space is precious but I do
feel that some space should
be devoted to letting your
readers know exactly what is
available, and giving a brief
idea of the quality of each
game that is on the tape.

The situation at the
moment is such that an
innocent computer owner
can walk into a shop and if he
or she is not careful, walk out
again after spending £8.00 of
hard-earned cash on a single
game to find later that the
same game could have been
bought along with several
others on a compilation. To
see a relatively new game
like Strange/oop appearing
on a compilation so soon
after its first release makes
me wonder if there isn't
something seriously wrong
with certain software
houses. It would seem to me
that they are doing
themselves a disservice.
Sureiy it would be a better
idea to manufacture a set
number of originals, let them
sell for the original price for a
reasonable amount of time
before letting them go to a
compilation. I just don't
understand!

So perhaps to help the
confused customer, couldn't
your reviewers give us some
idea of the compilations that
are around and how good or
bad the games are that are
on it?

Mark Ogier, St Peter Port,
Guernsey

We did intend doing a piece

on the compilations
available before Christmas
and it wasn 't lack of space
but time that let us all down.
The general argument
against covering each
compilation in detail is that
ZZAP! already carries review
s of most games included on
these tapes (unless they pre-
date us, which most, as you
have observed, don't).

As to the ethics involved in
putting out a game someone
paid (or might still be paying)
£7 £10 for at a compilation
cost of around £1 .50, say,
that is another matter.
Virgin's NOW MUSIC audio
compilations generally come
out pretty hard on the feet of
the hits themselves and
obviously represent
excellent value for money.
It's arguable that the games
compilations are only
following the trend. You
have to look at it from the
software house's point of
view. With most games, the
distributors and retail trade
tend to reckon on only very
few weeks selling period for
a title, and then it is, if not
exactly withdrawn, certainly
not promoted any more; so
within a few months they
feel they can get some
secondary life out of the
product by offering it at a
reduced price as part of a
compilation. As with all such
things, someone loses out a
bit, and / think you would
admit, that even if we did
mention them in more detail
than a news item, still lots of
people wouldn't notice in
time to prevent themselves
paying five or six times as
much as they need.

DISASTER ON
FRACTALUS

Dear ZZAP!

I have a question foryou. It
concerns the game Rescue
on Fractalus. I bought the
game on the strength of your
review and I was very
pleased with it — until now!
Whenever I play the game
for more than about ten
minutes, a long string of
flashing, reversed characters
appears in the cockpit
window and when I attempt
to dock with the mothership,
the game crashes and I have
to reload. I took the game
back to the shop and they
gave me another copy but it
just does the same thing as
the previous one. I have also
tried the game on a friend's
64 but again the result is the
same. Is there a bug in the
game or have I bought an
earlier version?

Alan Moncrieff, Hamilton,
Scotland

It sounds like your shop had
a dicky batch of cassettes.
We've certainly had no such
problems. Perhaps you
should try yet another copy.
LM

Paul Sumner Is supposed to be the 'quiet, serious' one, but
again Brian has seen beneath the peaceful exterior and come
up with a portrait that shows Paul's violently aggressive
nature whenever the traffic on the Much Wen lock road holds
him up (they do have the odd tractor). Notice, too, how at
first the eyes look bright and Intelligent, but closer
examination reveals cold calculated cunning.

16 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

V '

- J n

' \

///<

NtS ^

man,c amazement colours all of Julian
Rlgnall s life, well captured here by Mr Proudfoot and his

f ha * Br,an haI reto 9"'««* »h« ‘he
1h» JL'E.k! ! h jr b 11 ‘h/e* ‘Ime* the size of the right owing to
the fact that when a high score Is defeating him, he sucks it.

Hnhto 11 * 6 V,s ^* e * s the ext raordlnary enlargement of Julian's

sorhetolng aUSe< * ^ *°° muc * 1 * XK *yP°P scrolling — or

THOROUGHLY

NASTY

Dear Lloyd,

I must write to you and
point out that the Scorelord
is very distasteful. Is he a
pervert watching videos
such as ' Penn's Entrails
Slo wly Sucked by Fwoor/the
Dripping Monster Part II in
3Dr and giving away a pair of
human arms to a distraught
gamester (edition 7). Now
we know why Gary Penn was
beaten on Paranoid in last
month's ZZAPI Challenge.
The Scorelord rippeed off
Penn's arms and therefore
Penn had to use artificial
ones for the Challenge. I'm
not defending Mr Penn as he
is a flea-infested camel
dropping, (a bit silly), but the
Scorelord is the one that I
really hate as I have sent in to
ZZAPI Towers several high
scores of over 160,000 on
Hypersports with photos of

the score on TV enclosed.

Say, what a good idea.
Just to make the high scores
a little more genuine, how
about sending in screen
shots of highscores to back
up claimed scores.

Many thanks for the
POKES for GG Test Cricket
When playing a test between
India and Pakistan typing
names such as S.
Venkataraghaven or L.
Stuaramakrishan (Indian
cricketers not diseases!) get
just a little teensy weensy bit
tedious.

Finally now that JR and GP
have been slaughtered in the
ZZAPI Challenge, who is

g oing to be champion, me?

an Williams, Gary Liddon,
yourself, Fred from the flat
upstairs?

Well, that's it from me this
month I'll be writing in next
month so beware . . .

Arron Dore, Brixham, South
Devon

✓ ws

Yes, you are correct The
Scorelord is a tasteless,
unpleasant and thoroughly
transmogrified alien beast -
he's great Jaz says the high
scores ARE all genuine (but
he's bought the Eiffel Tower
three times over from a
French speaking American
before now for the princely
sum of £40 — he licenced its
use to the fast James Bond
film and made a fortune). As
to the next ZZAPI Challenge
victor — we'll just have to
wait until next month when
the world's most exciting
spectator sport resumes its
inexorable course . . .

So until then, keep the
letters coming in. We'll all do
our best to attend to your
LCP agony problems. Write
to ZZAPI RRAP, PO BOX 10
LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE SY8
1DB. The two Garies are

Wmmmi

taking notes of what comes
in on Compunet as well (I'm
informed), so you can expect
to see some of those bits and
pieces appearing in future
issues.

Software Firsts from the masters of mystery and science fiction.

ppr kTmason] — — ,

iti^ , 5 lts i a \AD rfTl Nine Princes in Amber,

^ /

Perry Mason: The Case
of the Mandarin Murder

is the first interactive mystery to use the
world-famous criminal lawyer created by
brie Stanley Gardner. It also represents a
major breakthrough in interactive fiction:
the cooperation of the characters and jury
changes as a direct result of your
interactions with them. In addition, you
can do virtually everything a courtroom
lawyer can do, from cross-examining and
introducing evidence to consulting
privately with the judge.

FREE S FANLEY GARDNER is the number
one best selling writer of all time,
according to the Guinness Book of
World s Records. Creator of Perry Mason
and the 85 books in which Mason is the
hero, he was himself a member of the bar
and is considered to be the dean of
American mvsterv fiction.

•nil m.iijist and ut dodocenduns
u sanos as lustitiam ,iequitatc‘<

1 (m

consuctutwr .tdipiSCinq chi s«;<

polios mflammad ut co
mvilai iqiiur vera rain,
lorem ipsurn dolor sil
eiusmod tenpor mod
Ut emim ad mmim ven
taboos nisi ut aliquip
irurr* dolor in reprehen
ilium dolore eu fuqiat n
dignissum qui biandit
molestias excepteur si
sunt m culpa qui offio

the first computer game to be produced
with Roger Zelazny, represents a major
breakthrough in interactive fiction.

A game of negotiation, politics and
alliances, its detailed play is almost
entirely determined by your interactions
w ith your numerous siblings and friends.
There are forty possible final endings and
over 40.000 different game variations. As
in real life, there are many strategies for
success - and every action has its
consequences. Nine Princes in Amber
features full-colour graphics and original
music.

ROGER ZELAZNY a leading figure in
American new-wave science fiction has
been honoured repeatedly with aw ards
lor his w riting, including several Hugo
and Nebulo awards. His Amber series is
currently comprised of six books
including the two on w hich this game is
based .

Also available in the same series are Amazon, Dragonworld and Fahrenheit 451
Disc only, for Commodore 64, Apple II at £19.95 and IBM at £24.95.

Available at all good software outlets.

WHS Distributors St John s House, East Street, Leicester.

ZZAPI 64 February 1986 17

pi care ftaflOT c , &%

[ xcellenl options whicli are a
diddle to use.

• ,V- ■;

irkp^is f #%

iani cizfe, cai toon- like graphics,
lovely I lumouious details.

Jingles, whaps, whops End
chiimmii liom the ciovvd,

BMWlPv-'

tasy to pet into and onucultto

li you ,get bored 61 the computer
opponents then you can always
build your own!

Definitely the best in its
field. Fight Night is just so
realistic. Sprite work like
this has just not been seen
before on the 64. The only
detractions were the
ineffective sound effects,
sp/odgy white noise when
there should have been
something sampled. Apart
from being a great arcade
hit. Fight Night's boxer
definer is of excellent
quality allowing the
creation of the most
wimpish opponents to the
mightiest of flesh
pounders. As simulations
go Fight Night is the best,
forget the rest.

construction allows you to build
and personalize your very own
boxers for use either as oppon-
ents or to fight with. Sparring
and training allow you to test out
your boxer's strengths and
weaknesses and put them to
rights.

Tournament (disk only) puts
you in a managerial position as
you set up a grand competition
of all constructed boxers in a
'round robin' tournament.

As you may remember, we virt-
ually reviewed Fight Night in
issue 8, except for the ratings, as
US Gold told us the copy we had
was not exactly complete — but
almost; so for more information
consult the Fight Night preview
in issue eight.

A t last! FightNight has
finally been completed and
released. The graphics are
the most stunning aspect of
the game, they're
absolutely superb with
brilliantly animated, giant-
size characters. The
computer pugilists are just
like cartoons, and the
results of their 'super
blows' are hilarious
( especially Dip Stick's
be/ow-the-belt special).

The boxer construction
mode is great fun and you
can use it to construct some
hysterical boxers to fight
with or beat up! The main
event provides a highly
enjoyable and very
challenging game. Some of
the later characters are
really tough and getting to
fight The Champ will
certainly take some doing.
Not having the tournament
mode on the cassette
version doesn 't really seem

18 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

I Fight Night is the fourth boxing
1 game/simulation to be released
on the 64 and has been around a
year in the making. It boasts
many features and an exciting
combination of cartoon quality
graphics and highly amusing
gameplay. There are four main
options present on the cassette
version and five on the disk.

The five options are: main
event, boxer construction, tour-
nament (not on the cassette
version), sparring and training.
Main event puts you in an ar-
cade style situation where you
have to battle your way through
four opponents to be able to
challenge the champ. Boxer

Fight Night is as good as
Barry McGuigan's but
employs a different
approach. The graphics are
certainly better with
impressively large and well
animated characters.

< Whereas the Activision title
is enjoyable to play
because it adopts a very
serious approach to the
noble art of fisticuffs. Fight
Night is just as much fun
because of its light-hearted
angle — although it still
follows an acceptably
logical attitude to boxing.
The numerous options are
all extremely easy to use
and being able to define
your own boxers adds to
the game's lasting appeal
tremendously. US Gold
have managed to put
together a sports
simulation that is not only
good to play, but fun to
watch as well, combining
natural laws with those of
the animated cartoon strip.
This should appeal to just
about everybody.

to detract from the game in
any way and both the disk
and cassette versions are
excellent products and
shou/dn 't be missed.

U.S. Gold Limited,

Unit 10, Parkway Industrial Centre

tt\ef ar distant future, assemble t/j

- ir ^ 1

adventure everprocfcZj %

Intergalactic Spaceship 3556 -
You are now in the far distant
future, guide your craft to the
alien planet but don’t venture
onto the surface for too long!!!

The Black Hole 9999 - After
travelling through time,
assemble the map and your
incredible task is almost
complete...

The Gnome Mansion - the
mysterious location of your
fantastic time machine.
Assemble the final parts of your
craft and begin your epic
voyage to past and future.

California Gold Rush 1849 -
Deadly scorpions, beastly bats,
and numerous nasties are on the
attack as you search the
cavernous gold mines of
California.

Mythological Greece 43BC -
A confrontation with Medusa
fight to the death with only
your magical shield for
protection.

Stone Age 9600BC - Explore
the dark and dangerous caves of
prehistoric times, you’ll need
strength and cunning to reach
your goal.

Colonial Salem, MA 1692 -
Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble,
mix a ghastly witches brew and
you’ll win through, but watch
out for the flying broomstick.

B B

& iiia

• -r .

T he platform game is dead,
long live the platform
game! Confused? You will
be, since Gremlin Graphics'
latest is a platform game but not
in the traditional sense of the
word. Gremlin have taken the
conventional 'side on' view,
turned it through ninety degrees
and come up with a platform
derivative that can only be
described as WEIRD! Enter the
surreal world of Bounder, a
world where tennis balls bounce
high — higher than you would
expect. And this is where the
platforms come in. It's hard to
see that platforms have any-
thing to do with this game, as
they are seen from above — but
they are there, and if you fail to
recognise this, then the game is
lost from the start.

This is without doubt
Gremlin's best release to
date and is one of the most
addictive games I have ever
played. The graphics are of
a very high quality stand-
ard and the sound comple-
ments the smooth scrolling
backgrounds perfectly ,
with a boppy little number
playing throughout Boun-
der is one computer game
that would not look out of
place in the arcades as it
looks and plays so good \
with its multitude of highly
original and absorbing
gameplay e ements. Don't
be deceive < by the simpli-
stic nature of Bounder
since lurking beneath an
apparently placid exterior
is a beast o f a game. Once
played it's never forgotten.

20 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

BOUNDER/

METABOLIS

FEBRUARY

Gremlin Graphics, £9.95 cass, joystick only

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A rather perilous situation — most of the safe grey platforms seem
to have hostiles living on them, and the ground looks a lo-o-o-ng
way down.

Bouncing at the waterfront awaiting a platform to leap upon before
the darts have a chance to do the dirty.

Bounder has one of the
silliest scenarios ever seen ,
after all when in your life
have you had the chance to
become a tennis ball and
bounce about a platform
miles above the ground?
The graphics are almost
arcade quality with fabu-
lous animation on some of
the nasties and really effec-
tive routines. The sound fits
the game perfectly , with an
apt 'bouncealong' sound-
track which plays through-
out the game.

Bounder is one of the most
original games to emerge
onto the market for an aw-
ful long time. Though at
first only graphically imp-
ressive , , after a few games
you really get hooked. /
can't exactly define why
this game appeals to me so
much but it seems to be
addictive in the same way
as the arcade hit Marble
Madness.

The action takes place far, far
above the ground with the sim-
ple object of guiding an extre-
mely vibrant tennis ball through
ten tortuous courses, avoiding
all manner of hazards along the
way. Each course consists of

Graphically Bounder is
superb , the two speed scro-
lling on one screen creates
a great sense of depth. The
ball itself is beautifully ani-
mated, looking very realis-
tic as it bounds in and out of
the screen. Though the
tune isn 't the best I've
heard on the 64, this persis-
tent little ditty suits the
game so well and any other
piece of music just would-
n't work as well. Bounder is
definitely one of the games
for the new year and with
the adequate Metabolis
included on the B side the
whole package presents
excellent value for money.

several platform arrangements,
with an expanse of colourful
scenery below. A feeling of
depth is created not through
geometric projection but by cle-
ver use of two speed vertical
scrolling — multi-coloured sce-
nery in the background scrolls
past slower than the grey paved

Along with

being a brilliant arcade
game Bounder has another
strong point— it's one of
the most frustrating and
maddeningly addictive
programs yet. Once you
start playing it's almost
impossible to put the joy-
stick down! If you want to
be driven bananas by a
program then buy this,
each one should come with
a government health
warning!!

platforms in the foreground,
producing the required parallax
effect. The ball on the other
hand, moves 'in' and 'out' of the
screen to give the impression it
is in fact bouncing up and down.

Most obstacles encountered
throughout the various levels
can be jumped with relative
ease, but some need that little
bit of extra 'boost' to get over or
around them. So, there are
blocks marked with an arrow to
give that added push. Catapults
are more powerful than the ar-
rows and are found on higher
levels, along with disappearing
platforms that must be jumped
on with caution and transporters
that teleport the ball from one
point on the screen to another.
Of course, things are not so
simple, for the ten levels also
have their own fair share of
nasties in the form of assorted
aliens, such as strange bat-like
creatures and jet propelled fish
and flies, along with many dev-
ious traps, all in true Indiana
Jones fashion. Other hazards
include impassable walls which
must be jumped around, volca-
noes that spew fire in abun-
dance and mines that explode
into deadly pieces of shrapnel.
Fans blowthe ball off course and
can prove both useful and a
pain, while spinning sticks are
definitely most annoying.

To make life a bit easier there
are plenty of question marks
scattered along the courses.
These squares, when landed on,
give a surprise, usually pleasan-
tries such as extra lives, 'jumps'
or points. Occasionally you find
yourself being chomped by a
pair of evil gnashing teeth or
squashed by a pair of boxing
gloves, but at least the squares
stay the same every game. As
the levels progress the courses
get longer and are far more
treacherous, with sneaky dead
ends in mazes of impassable
walls and an increasing number
of aliens to hinder progress. At
the end of every level there is a
bonus screen — several quest-
ion marks are dotted about the
screen and you must land on as
many as possible before you run
out of 'jumps'. You start with a
limited supply of jumps, but
they are only used up on bonus
screens. Should you success-
fully land on every square then
you are awarded a Bounder
bonus of 10,000 points, along
with the standard bonus of
1 0,000 points for completing the
level. You then move on to the
next level and yet more hassle .

Still confused? Don't be — the
game is certainly easier to play
than it is to describe!

Presentation 9 1 %

No options but the game is
extremely well thought out
and executed.

Graphics 95%

Exquisite two speed
parallax scrolling gives an
unusual vertical 3D effect.

Sound 90%

Both music and sound FX
are great and suit the game
exceedingly well.

Hookability 98%

Extraordinary visual
approach combined with
some unique gameplay
elements and an original
control method make
Bo un der h i g h I y a d d i ct i ve t o
play.

Instability 97%

The compulsive nature of
the game brings you back
again, and again, and again

Value for Money
98%

Two games for the price of
one, even though one of
them, Metabolis, is
average.

Overall 97%

An absorbing/demanding
and totally innovative
approach to the ageing
platform formula.

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 21

* Arcade adventure from Ancient Greece
«;L Ir tvMn nlaver game option 4

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* one or wo P** 9^ op "°"

S&''

Rambo yomping to the south of the Temple. The indistinct blur
next to the Temple is a machine gun.

J ohn 'Don't push me'
Rambo is a figure likely to
be familiar to most ZZAP!
readers. You've seen the film,
read the book, ate the burger
and now, after three months
intensive advertising, you can
play the game. Rambo, opiate of
America's masses, is a modern
day mega hero who's been sent
on a reconnaissance mission to
take some photos of a prisoner
of war camp deep within the Viet
Nam jungle. His orders are clear.
Do Not engage the enemy and
Do Not attempt a rescue.

Obviously this would make for
a very dull film, not to mention
game, so placed within the
enemy compound we find Ram-
bo's old pal and buddy. Banks.
Feeling pretty poorly having
been strung up on a bamboo
post since the start of the game
(and for all of the time since the
war finished), Rambo takes pity
(and umbrage — LM's Long

There's something
missing from Ram-
bo, but i'm not
quite sure what. Let
.me see — it's cer-
tainly not lacking in
presentation , as

there are many su-
perb touches thr
oughout. Hmm, the music is
very good \ in fact excellent at
times, and the graphics aren't
bad — well the full screen scrol-
ling landscape is good, unlike
the sprites which are rather
poor, especially the malformed
enemy soldiers. No, there's
something else ... I know
someone forgot the gamep/ay
during coding. Still, at least the
game follows the film very clo-
sely, ie there's no plot.

Though initially
impressed with
Rambo after seeing
the title screen, lis-
tening to music
and entering my
on the drum-
beat accompanied
highscore, it soon
became obvious after a few
minutes play that Ocean had
neglected the actual game
somewhat. The only positive
thing / can really say about it is
that the scrolling's nice. There is
some challenge to be had but
once the three sections have
been completed, the game just
cycles back to the start. The
actual Rambo sprite is a bit ill-
proportioned, with the exagger-
ated bulging triceps he's as wide
as he is tall. The only reason /
can see for buying Rambo is to
listen in awe to the excellent
Martin Ga/lway music. Apart
from that, don't bother.

Word Dictionary) and decides to
break his orders. Uninformed
that Rambo's really on a peace-
ful sort of mission, the evil
enemy troops try to blast him
apart, sapping him of that near-
endless energy.

Rambo himself is a meaty
sprite that remains centrally
placed in the screen while the
steamy jungle scrolls beneath
him. The scenery takes up the
whole screen and smoothly
scrolls to some Martin Gallway
music in the background. To
keep Rambo up to date on his
progress, score and energy lev-
els are superimposed along the
bottom of the screen. Though
pretty tough, John Rambo is not
immortal and, as a daring dep-
arture from the original script,
he can actually die! If the energy

loading and
title screen
on this pro -
s very impr-
— some of
voices sound
hey're coming
a real synth.
starting the
game you have to enter your
name using a Hypersports
entry. While you're doing
incredibly realistic synthesis
drumbeat thumps away in the
background. Unfortunately the
sound is just about the only high
quality aspect of the program
f found the sprites really awful
and the animation very poor.
The backgrounds aren't too hot
either and the perspective on the
trees and buildings seems sli-
ghtly out. The full screen multi-
directional scrolling is excellent,
though, everything moves very
smoothly with not a glitch to be
seen. The object of the game is
very simple and there's only one
mission, and once it's been com-
pleted the game just returns to
the start of the same mission.
Rambo is fun to play, but / think
that the initial enjoyment will be
quelled once a hardened game-
ster, such as myself, has been
through the same mission a
couple of times.

band drops down to zero level,
usually due to too many bullets
bouncing of his chest, then the
game is over. Score is awarded
For killing the compound guards
or completing one of the three
stages in the game.

To ward off any attacking
guards Rambo is supposed to
Fend for himself using three
weapons with which he's supp-
lied initially, although there are
others to be found in the jungle.
Each has a different character-
istic and effect. Rambo's original
inventory contains a bow, two
types of arrow and a pocket full
of knives. One of the guivers of
arrows is of the explosive type
and though pretty powerful, it's
best not to use them at first. The
disadvantage of the more pow-
erful weapons is that they attract
the attention of the enemy, so on
approaching the camp silence is
a better tactic and that means
the use of the knives or ordinary
arrows.

Once he's into the compound,
that inescapable star-guality
charisma alerts the gooks to
Rambo's presence and they de-
cide that he shouldn't really be
there. Silence is no longer an
advantage, and by using the
space bar it's possible to switch
to the noisier and slightly more
powerful weapon.

The compound is mostly
made up from huts and security
towers, all displayed in a forced
3D perspective. Banks is held at
the top left hand side of the
camp, to collect him just guide
Rambo past the bamboo cross
upon which he is strung.

The next stage is to get Rambo
and Banks to the waiting 'copter
to the north of the compound.

Once into the machine, Rambo
must return to the compound to
rescue the rest of the captive
prisoners. The helicopter's fuel
runs out with great speed and
the landing spot must be found
before the energy band gets to
zero. To release the hostages, a
hut in the bottom left hand
corner has to be hit with a knife.
A burst of music rings out and
ten pale looking prisoners run
for the helicopter. Once back
into the helicopter you must fly
northwards to friendly Thailand
while coping with some hassle
from an enemy gunship.

Throughout the program
sound is used to try and create
atmospheric effect. Though
there is probably more on later
stages of the game, nine diffe-
rent tunes were counted durinq
play.

■ " .MUIVM ■ /U

Definitely Rambo's forte, there's
little else to beat it.

Graphics 73%

Though of a pretty colour
scheme the sprites are abysmal
and the backgrounds
unconvincing.

Slound 96%

Martin Gallwav

Martin Gallway has excelled
himself in one of the first
computer symphonies.

Hookability 59%

Initial impressions leave you
wishing you'd never bothered
and . . .

Instability 60%

. . . the same goes for lastability.

Value For Money 65%

Too little game for too high a
price.

Overall 65%

Rambo seems more like an
exercise in programming rather
than an attempt at producing a
playable game.

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 23

any years ago rode a
band of men. They
came from the East
of the desert and with them they
brought terror and destruction.
Nobody was safe from the perils
of a merciless death, no family
was complete, no man was free .

And so the scenario is set for
Outlaws, the latest offering from
Ultimate. You play Lone Rider,
the Commodore equivalent of
John Wayne, who, in truly hero-
ic style, has to ride into the
Outlaw area and eradicate the
undesirable elements.

Outlaws is an arcade game

Outlaws is very
U/timatesque in
everyway. The gra-
phics look very
similar to previous
offerings with
porky sprites and
the same scrolling
technique. The
same applies to music and
sound hX and they could have
quite easily come off almost any
other Ultimate 64 game despite
Wild West overtones. Having
I said that , I do like the animation
on the horses — very realistic.
Thankfully , Outlaws isn't as bad
as Ultimate's fast release, Imho-
tep, but it still fails to make the
grade, offering only three situa-
tions, and all of them very
'samey'.

which takes place over a two-
way horizontally scrolling land-
scape. Your character sits on his
trusty 'hoss' and can trot left or
right over the landscape. Occa-
sionally a fence, rock or broken
branch comes into view. You
can make your horse jump the
barrier by pushing up on the
joystick, if you don't then the
horse refuses and you fall off.
The player has plenty of control
over Lone Rider — he can duck
in the saddle and fire his guns in
eight directions.

The game has three different
types of screens: the Outlands,
Indian Territory and the Town.
The first screen, the Outlands
puts you in the desert. You have
to ride up to the baddies' hide-
out and shoot them all as they
lean out of the window. This is
quite tricky since bullets fly in all
directions as you make repeated
rides past the hideout.

If you manage to shoot all
those critters then it's a ride
through Indian Territory to the
town where more baddies are
massacring the honest towns-
folk. The Indian Territory has
loads of obstacles which have to
be jumped and other hazards
besides. Tumbleweeds trundle
across the dusty landscapes and
these have to be jumped. Also
the occasional crow makes a
down-swoop at the hero — if
he's touched twice then he loses

Ultimate seem to
mjjm$ EH' have reached the
depths of. their
A - *} 2 slump and have

\^>j jf released a program
which is infinitely
better than last
month's disaster
'***' Imhotep. Outlaws
is a brave attempt at an unusual
arcade game which, although
being limited, is fresh and highly
playable. The graphics are very
crisp, pretty and scroll very
smoothly, and the sprites are
clearly recognisable as coming
from an Ultimate game. The
sound is okay, although some of
the effects have been lifted from
some of the Arthur Pendragon

f ames. It's nice to see Ultimate
ack on the road to recovery — if
things continue to improve they
could well find themselves be-
coming thought of as a great
software house again.

one of his five lives. Indians ride
along in the distance and fire
arrows, although they're rarely
on target.

If you manage to get through
indian Territory Then you enter
the Town scene. Here a specified
number of outlaws (five on the
first level, ten on the second etc)
are running riot through the
town, merrily slaughtering the
inhabitants. What you have to
do is trot up and down the main
street and kill them all before

they successfully bring the
town's population down to zero.
This isn't as easy as it sounds
since the baddies tend to mingle
with the crowds walking along
the street and it's easy to shoot
the wrong person.

If you manage to kill the re-
maining Outlaws then you are
given a points bonus for the
amount of people left in the
town and you start on the first
screen again, only this time it's
harder with more Outlaws and
obstacles.

Yet another typic-
MML ally Ultimate crea -
tion, nice graphics,
nice sound and
(&/ absolutely awful
\ gameplay. The
SHk i only real saving
* grace of Outlaws ts
^ that it isn 't quite as
bad as Imhotep. As usual there's
the ubiquitous expanded and
blocky sprites making up the
main player. The music is very
mundane and annoyingly fades
as you hit fire to start. There
really is nothing much to say
about Outlaws except for how
mediocre it is. Ultimate will
really have to pull their act
together if they wish to compete
with other software producers in
this price range.

Presentation 67%

Some useful options and an
attractive screen layout.

Graphics 78%

Pleasant scrolling backdrops,
excellent equestrian animation.

Sound 30%

Generally dull.

Hookablllty 53%

Initially interesting and quite
jolly to play.

Instability 33%

Not enough variety and action to
grab you tor long.

Value For Money 31 %

If Ultimate continue releasing
products below their usual
standard, then they should at
least price it accordingly.

Overall 35%

Ultimate have surely seen better
days.

24 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

"i thought is u$s

OUTLAWS

Ultimate, £9.95 cass, joystick only

walks, horrendous slopes with

Although

Gyroscope has
8P?S51|| some graphic simi-
larities to the arc-
/ Jrr \- N ; a< * e 9 3 me Marble
i^adness, it certa-
I W g | inly doesn't have
any of f/?e addictive
gamep/ay. Unlike
fts arcade ' counterpart ' f/?ere /s
//ft/#. to do other than steer down
slopes — at least Marble Mad-
ness has a multitude of different
nasties to contend with. If
Melbourne House had put a lot
more into the game then Gyro-
scope could have been some-
thing special, but as it stands it's
just dull.

tight corners, holes in the floor
and combinations of all these
with the aforementioned haz-
ards — being a gyroscope isn't

checks have to be made to en-
sure you're not going too fast —
if there's a sharp turn at the
bottom you could find yourself
in deep trouble, and run out of
road.

Inanimate hazards on the
course complicate matters fur-
ther, and include black holes
(which make control of your
gyro rather difficult) and magne-
tic floors (which pull you in cer-
tain directions, usually to the
edge of a precipice).

The landscapes are very dev-
iously created; starting from rel-
atively easy they get more tricky
very rapidly. Some of the diffi-
cult courses contain thin cat-

G yroscope puts you in a
similar surrealistic situa-
tion to the arcade classic
Marble Madness. The basic
gameplay is very simple — you
take control of a gyroscope with

Gyroscope is yet
another game that
has lost an awful
tot in it's transla-

tton f rom ,t s sou ~

rce machine. On
Spectrum Gyr-
oscope is a great
mm game, , well deserv

ing of it's CRASH Smash status,
but on the Commodore it's so
lack lustre. Graphically Gyros-
cope is quite pretty, successfully
emulating Marble Madness
from where Gyroscope's inspi-
ration no doubt came. The con-
trol of the main sprite is quite
nice though because it's single
colour vou may have a bit trou-
ble picking it out. The attacking
monsters are just rubbish, they
move unconvincingly and look
extremely blurry. Worst o f all is
the extremely bad error detec-
tion, the program just doesn't
have any idea when the gyro-
scope gets near to the edge of a
ledge. I'm afraid depsite the
potential of an excellent game,
Melbourne House have really
mucked up. ft may well be worth
a quick look at, but / doubt it.

the task of getting from the
starting post at the top of the
course to the finishing post at
the bottom within the allotted
time. Each time the gyroscope
topples, a life is lost. The course
is very strange, presented in a
surrealistic 3D effect featuring
tall geometric buildings, ramps
and steep slopes along and
around which you have to guide
the gyroscope. The course also
provides a home for some rather
strange (and vaguely familiar)
aliens whose touch topples your
spinner.

There are six courses, each
taking up five screens. As you
make your way down a course
the screen scrolls vertically with
the gyroscope. The whole game
is played against a clock, which
ticks off the time relentlessly as
you try to complete each quintet
of screens. Completing a course
earns you a bonus related to the
amount of time remaining on
the clock.

You begin the game with five
lives in store, and pick ud a

Top Quality 5i" Bulk Packed Disks
Supplied in 10’s with a FREE Plastic Library Case, Labels etc

10 Single Sided/Double Density*

10 Double Sided/Double Density*

50 Single Sided/Double Density*

(Supplied with a Perspex Storage Box)

50 Double Sided/Double Density*

(Supplied with a Perspex Storage Box)

bonus life for each 1,000 points
scored. If you fail to complete a
screen course within the time
limit, the gyroscope topples
when the count hits zero, a life is
lost and you resume play from
the spot you reached at timeout
with the clock reset to start a
new run.

There are some very thin cat-
walks between the buildings
and here lies the main danger. If
you stray too near the edge of a
construction

ONLY £74*95

/ love arcade Mar-
ble Madness and
therefore really
looked forward to
getting this prog-
ram. Unfortunately
/ found myself very

7 iLEf disappointed. Gyr-

9 oscope seems rat

her empty, no rotten meanies or
really devious bits of landscape
to have to negotiate — just get-
ting to the bottom of the course
screen after screen. It's a shame
that Melbourne have produced
Gyroscope like this, the graphics
and sound are very nice, but
with a little more programming
the game could have been really
brilliant. As it stands it's just a
poor cure for lack of Marb/e-
Madnessitis.

All prices are inclusive of V.A.T.

Delivery FREE throughout the U K.

3" & 3?” Disks also available

Bulk Orders, Export Enquiries & Educational Enquiries Welcome

Double Density is the equivalent of 40 ®0 Track

or catwalk your
gyro becomes unbalanced and
totters over — another life gone.
When this happens, the gyro is
replaced at the place where it
died, and thus time is lost as well
as a life.

Control of a gyroscope takes
some getting used to

once

you start moving in one direc-
tion it takes a while to slow
down. The beast accelerates
down slopes, and constant

i Love ppwlg Bygng /

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 25

Melbourne House, £8.95 cass, joystick or keys

Presentation 56%

Lacking in options and not much
thought seems to have gone
into the game.

Graphics 87%

Very pretty Marble Madness
style backdrops but little else

Sound 42%

Very irritating and repetitive
soundtrack.

Hookability 55%

There's so little to dothatthefun
is very initial.

Escher on the small screen — the gyroscope is all set to fall into
oblivion due to the arrows on the floor pushing it in that direction

Instability 4 1 %

Lack of surprises makes the
game pall.

Value For Money 45%

Only worth it if you're really
suffering from
lackofMarbleMadnessitis.

Overall 46%

A disappointment from

Melbourne House

Please Send Cheques/Postal Orders to:-

SJB DISKS LIMITED (Dept Z Z 1 )

1 1 Oundle Drive, Nottingham, NG8 1BN
Telephone (0602) 782310

^l9Nmj_ $hai\

"I'U. <j€T TXOr
*THIN

Elite

OMMAJ

f, £9.95 cass, joystick only

E lite's Commando is the
licensed version of the
classic Capcom arcade
game which has captivated
thousands of arcade gamers all
over Britain.

The game places you in the
role of a super crack commando
with a mission to penetrate deep
behind enemy lines and destroy
their well guarded fortress. This
mission takes place over a vert-
ically scrolling landscape and
you, armed with a few grenades
and a sub machine gun, have to
take on the entire enemy army
single handed.

There are boxes of grenades
lying around the battlefield
which you can pick up to repl-
enish your stocks, but otherwise
you just have to use skill, re-
flexes and sub machine gun to
survive.

To reach the fortress you first
have to pass through two areas,
each with its own mini fortress
at the end. When you take a mini
fortress you are transported to
the second area, and after that
it's the final run up to the main
fortress. If you take and destroy
that then you start the second
mission which takes place over
the same landscape and has to
be completed in similar style,
although the soldiers are far
more hostile.

When you approach a fortress
its doors open and loads of sol-
diers pour out, spewing bullets
from their guns and lobbing
grenades all over the shop. To
take the fortress you have to
destroy every soldier — not a
trivial task by any means. When
you've killed all the soldiers your
man automatically runs through
the fortress gates, a message of
congratulations is printed up on
screen and you are taken to the
next area.

Each area has its own features
and hazards. Level one is com-
paratively easy, but by the time
you reach level three the going
gets really tough, with lots of
obstacles to thwart swift for-
ward progress. Naturally, there
are loads of enemy soldiers
swarming all over the place, but
luckily they're only armed with
single shot rifles and grenades.
Even so their sheer numbers
often becomes totally over-
powering.

There are two specialist
weapons used by enemy sol-
diers: bazookas and mortars.
Mortar bombers don't pose too
much of a threat, since they can

/ wouldn't have
thought it possible
to successfully re-
produce the arcade
game Commando
on a mere Commo-
dore 64. Elite obv-
iously feel the
same ; since this
official version doesn't look,
sound or play like the original
The graphics are good, but
nothing outstanding. The scrol-
ling backdrops are great, but
some of the sprites seem prone
to epileptic attacks and on oc-
casions they even disappear!
This proves extremely off-putt-
ing and makes the game very
annoying to play. The music is
the most impressive thing about
Commando, with Rob Hubb-
ard's excellent variation on the
original theme to drive you on as
you play. However, the sound
effects are poor and comple-
ment the gamep/ay well. As it
stands, this seems a very hurr-
ied conversion of the arcade

f ame — a shame, as I'm sure
life could have done better if
they had put their collective
minds to it.

only fire one pretty inaccurate
shot at a time. Bazooka carriers,
on the other hand, are deadly
and fire round after round of
lethal shells which explode in a
large cloud of deadly flak.

Vehicles trundle about the
landscape. They come in var-
ious shapes and sizes and inc-
lude trucks, jeeps and motor-
bikes. They've all got to be
avoided, but can be destroyed
with a well-aimed hand gren-
ade. Jeeps can cause problems,
as they carry a gunner armed
with a sub machine gun and
spell doom if you're not busy
pegging it in the opposite dir-
ection. Lorries, too, are deadly
and carry many soldiers who
pile out when their transport
stops.

The landscape is very barren
— well, what do you expect for a
desert? Dotted around are trees,
little hills (usually the enemy

JBb Though supposed-
fy a conversion of
Wnt ^ * the arcade game
ft & Commando, Elite's
W % ^ version is woefully
lacking five of the
m 9 SH P levels seen on the
original, ft wouldn't
be so bad if the first
three levels were a bit harder to
complete but since they don't
even present that much chall-
enge to me, doing the same
thing again and again very
quickly grows tedious. Graphic-
ally and in terms of execution.
Commando is very competent
indeed, but it just doesn't hold
interest at all for me. Even so,
many people may well enjoy it.

come belting down their slopes)
and rivers (there are always
bridges to cross them — you
might be a commando but you
can't swim)!

Area one is pretty deserted
with only a few trees and hills,
although there is a bridge under
which you have go. The bridge is
narrow, and there's usually
plenty of enemy soldiers just
waiting to pounce on you on the
other side. After the bridge there
are rocks which the enemy use
for cover and after these, the
first mini fortress.

Area two is where things start
getting tough. Foxholes filled
with soldiers block your path,
and the only way to kill the
soldiers is by lobbing grenades
on them. While you're trying to
do that they're busily trying to
machine gun you down, just to
make your life a misery. There
are also another two bridges,
one to go under and one to go
over (it gets you across a river}.
Buildings and bunkers start tG
make an appearance too. Yet
more soldiers pour from the

/ must confess to
being terribly disa-
ppointed with this.
It's not the actual
playability that's
lacking, it's the
' number of levels —
there are only three
which are pretty
easy to complete within a few
games. Once you've gone round
a few times the whole game gets
rather boring to play. All the
features of levels one, two and
four of the arcade machine have
been faithfully reproduced with
some very nice graphics, but
really that's not enough. If you
do love Commando and don't
have a chance to play the real
thing then obviously you've got
no choice but to buy this, but
really you should take a look at it
first, because / don't think it has
enough challenge to keep a
hardened gamester occupied
for long.

buildings, while a fusillade of
bullets comes from the bunkers.

The final run, area three, has
all the hazards found in the ear-
lier sections, only in far greater
numbers. On this rush you're
forced to cross an airport which
has lookout towers complete
with machine gun wielding sol-
diers at the top. Great gangs of
bazooka carriers make the going
really tough — they emerge
from each side of the screen and
fire their shells diagonally,
making them very difficult to
dodge.

Points are awarded for dispos-
ing of enemy soldiers and veh-
icles and a hefty bonus can be
earned by killing two guards
who hold a colleague of yours
prisoner. However, once you
liberate your ally, he disappears,
rather than helping you fight
your battle.

Presentation 72%

Nice arcade quality title 'attract'
screens and high score table,
but no game options.

Graphics 83%

Smooth scrolling backdrops,
but there are sometimes awful
glitches.

Sound 91%

Rob Hubbard's superb remixes
of the arcade tunes.

Hookability 80%

Destroying the fortress is highly
desirable . . .

Instability 61%

. . . but doing it gets very
repetitive.

Value For Money 72%

A tenner for only three out of
eight levels of the arcade game
seems a bit steep.

Overall 77%

Doesn't quite live up to its
potential.

26 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

Tf+t tKfST tHl Trt

Multi User Dungeon

"MUD leaves conventional adventures for dead " (PCW)

"MUD is the addictive game " (Telelink)

"10 out of 10 on all counts " (Which Micro)

It's here - The most talked about computer game in the
world. M.U.D is more than Adventure, more than
Communication, more than a new way of using your
Micro. It's fun, it's addictive, it's challenging, and, if you
have a modem, a computer and a phone-line, it's all yours!

Hundreds of people are already playing. This is your
chance to join them.

Call the MUD-Line now 01-608 1173

(j) CONFUCIUS is a division of British Telecommunications pic. M U D is a trademark of BT/M.U.S.E

FEBRUARY

•'v v .vv v

cFrortf

F rom the comfort of your
armchair, Lucasfilm ask
you to enter a world of dark
mystery, a land that, subcons-
ciously, is well known to you.
From within the safe confines of
your Eiderdown, you are to
enter The Eidolon, and through
it the depths of your mind, travel
within your very id, a place full of
surprises that deep down you
already know.

Around a hundred years ago a
Dr Josef Agon distinguished
himself in the eyes of the Vic-
torian intelligentsia as one of the
world's greatest scientists.
Agon probed into the untapped
powers of the human mind and
eventually sank to reclusedom,
never venturing from his Victo-
rian mansion, performing str-
ange experiments and practic-
ally living in his cellar labora
tory. The years of research fin-
ally paid off and the culmination
of Agon's life's work was The
Eidolon — a craft powered upon
mind energy and capable of
propelling it's user into the
cavernous spaces within their
own identity. A hundred years

guardian — encounter a dragon

inanimate stone . . . PPr ° ach to ° cl °se, he is harmless

on and Agon's creation is disc-
overed, American software
house Lucasfilm have managed
to recreate the antiquated mind-
probe in a slightly more acces-
sable silicon form. All you need
is a Commodore 64, a cassette
or disk drive and willingness to
experiment within your own
personna.

In it's original form, The Eid-
olon is a spherical shaped, man
sized globe just large enough for
one voyager. Mounted upon the
globe's apex is a multi purpose
cannon/capturer for firing and
retrieving the energy-composed
globes populating your id. Sit-
ting upon three stalk-like ant-
enna, The Eidolon floats when in
action, gliding upon the mind's

/ waves. To be-

28 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

The Eidolon is yet another
superb game from
LucasfUm which follows
the footsteps of Ballblazer
and Koronis Rift. Again
fractal mathematics have
been used to produce some
really superb graphics
resulting in fantastic
realism as you penetrate
the mysterious caverns.

The characters are
fabulous - really huge and
superbly animated. Whilst
playing it's possible to get
totally engrossed and end
up practically having a
coronary when a nasty
jumps out from around a
corner. The Eidolon has
really set the standards for
1986 — if LucasfUm
continue to produce
programs as good as this
then Commodore owners
are certainly in for a very
happy new year!

gin just sit in the control chair
and pull the trigger at the side of
the main operating lever and
relax. The machine will then
transport the viewer to a sub-
terranean maze-like system of
caverns. Using a joystick The
Eidolon can be moved through
the grey cave system. When
using Lucasfilm's computer cir-
cuit-based personna prober, the
bottom half of the TV is dedi-
cated to conveying the informa-
tion displayed upon the control
panel. Above this is a three-
dimensional representation of
what can be seen from the
cockpit. Cave walls and vaulted
ceilings move realistically
around as the joystick is mani-
pulated. On your first venture
The Eidolon is placed within the
first level, the object is to pro-
gress through to the seventh
level of identity. Each cave has
an entrance into a deeper level
of the mind but is fervently

I his is

Lucasfilm's fourth and
probably most impressive
release to date. As is to be
expected from this
company ; the presentation
is immaculate with plenty
of attention to detail all
round \ especially in the
instructions. The graphics
are as stunning as the
packaging and the
standard of animation
present is quite
remarkable ,

defended by one of the caverns'
guardians. Bathed in a key
operated force field you have to
capture the key to the field and
then destroy the gate's warder.
As The Eidolon nears a force
field the space around it glows
with a coloured aura. To pierce
the barrier a power jewel of a
similar glow to the field's aura
must be collected and projected
at it.

When the caverns are first
entered a full complement of
power is supplied and indicated
upon the lower screen. If any-
thing of a detrimental nature
happens to The Eidolon the
needle on the powermeter fluc-
tuates away from the plus sign
and towards the minus. Hanging
before you in mid-space on the
first level are a number of con-

sound, which is
unfortunately weak, but
having said that, is still
surprisingly effective.
Thankfully The Eidolon is
as enjoyable and absorbing
to play as it is to watch, with
seven levels of twisting
passages and evil beings to
contend with. Yet another
classic game from
LucasfUm, and I look
forward to their next
releases with anticipation.
But for the moment Tm
quite content with The
Eidolon — excuse me . . .

veniently placed yellow energy
spheres that hum and glow,
these can be collected to reple-
nish a flagging power supply. If
the sphere is in central view then
a diamond shaped field sus-
pends itself around the globe,
this means that The Eidolon can
capture the sphere with collec-
tor/discharger on its roof. A
pound on the space bar activ-
ates collection mode and boosts
the energy needle accordingly.
Extra ammunition is also awar-
ded. Not only gold fireballs hang
near the cave's roof, there are
also blue spheres which not only
boost The Eidolon’s energy level
but also alter the course of time,
freezing all objects in motion for
a brief spell. Since a time limit is

ZZAPI64 February 1986 29

collected In th ee indicators show w/ha^ Uar ^ ,an you are -

£^ T ySi

-d (right, thelet'l'^ ~

hitehom b e U9 ’ eVed creature blink

alarm as the first bolt of energy

pounding on the fire button. One
of four powerspheres may be
selected for firing from by pres-
sing the keys 1 to 4. Red, Gold,
Green and Blue spheres are
numbered one to four respec-
tively. Each release of a fireball
drains your energy supply and
diminishes ammunition. Care
must be taken to avoid using
more red fireballs than are
required to defeat the foe, for
they are only detonated on con-
tact with the monster. Too many
in the system and you could run
into one that has just rebounded
from a far wall! In this situation
you can either dodge or try and
shoot it with another red fireball.
If you hit true then the two fire
balls merge into one. Though
still bouncing and rebounding
off the walls, the newly merged
fireball is yellow and can be
picked up if you're fast enough.

Each fireball has a different
effect on the creature before the
machine. Red is normally best
because of its powerful nature.

imposed on your journey to the
next level the blue globes can be
handy for time extensions or
temporarily halting a nasty in
pursuit.

Many creatures inhabit the
twisted mind tunnels and each
of them guards a power crystal
of its own. Since you need the
power crystals to destroy the
guardians' force fields, you have
to find and destroy these mon-
sters. Most of the creatures are
quite lethargic, sitting statues-
quely frozen in front of their
power gem. But should The
Eidolon approach an Id monster,
the energy radiated by the
machine stirs them to life, drain-
ing all they can from your sup-
ply, proximity can be very dam-
aging. If the supply reaches zero
then you get thrown out of your
mind and back into the real
world. When approached, a
nasty changes from a stone-like
grey into its original colour and
the creature attacks. To van-
quish your opponent it's best to

I got

very excited about The
Eidolon after seeing a
demo at the PCW show I
expected great things of
this title and thankfully /
wasn 't let down. The first
thing to strike you is the
stunningly realistic 3D
effect created by the caves
moving. Usually with a
program of this sort the
game itself is often sadly
neglected. With Eidolon
this is not the case at all.
Battling imaginatively
different monsters in the
labyrinths of your own
mind is amazing fun. Rea!
atmosphere is created by
the realistically animated
creatures. Apparently
Lucas film originally
animated the different
characters on celluloid and
then transposed them onto
the 64. The documentation
accompanying the package
is near faultless , and
though not very detailed it
gives enough information
to get you started on a truly
astounding adventure.
There's no criticism / can
think of for this game.

to have no real effect upon any
of the caves denizens.

On later levels other creatures
appear, all fully animated when
stirred into action. So far en-
countered are Trolls, Biter Birds,
Rotoflies, Puffer Birds, Greps,
Bottlenecks and Hell-hounds.
There are seven layers to be
travelled through and though no
one knows what lies beyond the
seventh barrier. Dr Agon's diary
contained the following

passage:

'Last night, / had a strange
vision- half dream, half fantasy. /
imagined / had made it through
the seventh level, past the final
guardians. Suddenly, against an
immense and limitless sky, /
beheld a many-headed dragon
more fearful than anything /
have encountered. With the light
of morning, the vision lingers,
too vivid and haunting to be
dismissed . '

Though this was only a dream it
is likely that Dr Argon's repeated
ventures into his own mind en-
dowed him with the skill of pre-
monition. Though as yet uncom-
firmed, the lowest levels of
human consciousness are prob-
ably an awesome domain
indeed.

let off a volley of red spheres by
on the first level there's nothing
that a blast of red fireballs can't
trash. However when you reach
the later screens some of the
creatures are just too powerful
to be destroyed easily. For this
the green and blue fireballs
come into their own. Blue freeze
an enemy for a short amount of
time, giving extra time to des-
troy your foe. Green transforms
your opponent into another
monster of the caves though it is
possible to conjure up a foe of
greater power. Gold balls seem

30 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

/V(ONST£RS
REN'T RS ClTC

BOUNCES THE SPORT OF THE FUTURE

Mail Order: MONOLITH, 3rd Floor Lector Court, 151 Farringdon Road, London EC1 R 3AD.
All games priced at £9.95 inc P&P. Cheques/POs payable to BEYOND.'

Credit cards call 01-837 2899

R evs isn't an average
run-of-the-mill arcade
race game, it's a fully
fledged Formula 3 racing car
simulator. No grabbing the joy-
stick and zooming off into the
sunset at MACH 3, oh no, plenty
of practice is needed before you
can even get round a simple
bend in first gear! You have
been warned.

Revs simulates the Formula 3
Ra/t RT3 Toyota Novamotor and
therefore, like a proper racer,
has to be driven with a certain
amount of respect. No zooming
around corners at silly speeds,
you just end up spinning off the
track.

The specifications of the car
have been copied faithfully,
although the computer version
has no clutch and an engine
tolerant of abuse like excessive

played). There are still five gears
(and reverse), brakes and a
throttle. Steering is done by
using two keys, and pressing the
space bar amplifies the steering
motion. The car's aerilons are
adjustable allowing you to cus-
tomize the car so it suits your
driving best.

The game is viewed from the
driver's seat so you can see the
steering wheel in front of you
with the dashboard and all its
dials beneath. The only dial that
plays a part in the game is the
rev counter. This is used instead
of a speedometer since it shows
the actual power the engine is
producing rather than the speed
the car is travelling. This is far
more valid when coming out of
corners since the rev counter
shows you whether you're get-
ting optimum performance from
the car. The car also has wing
mirrors which certainly prove

On first viewing this looks
pretty unimpressive, it's
only when you get behind
the 'wheel' and you can
relate to what's happening
on screen that the program
really comes into its own.

The 3D is incredibly
realistic and the feeling of
exhilaration and 'being
there ' is paramount. The
way the car bounces up and
down as it moves along the
road is amazing and further
adds to the realism of the
game.

To a novice Revs is slightly
confusing and frustrating
because the car is so
difficult to control —
spinning off the track
seems the only thing you'll
ever manage.

Perseverence reaps its own
rewards , however, and
within a few hours practice
it's possible to go round a
track without crashing into
anything. The competition
mode is brilliant with
tremendous realism and
thrills as you battle it out
with the other drivers. This
is a truly fabulous program
— every drivers' dream! Go
and buy it.

overrevving (otherwise it would
explode every time a novice

32 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

Position ?o
lops to 90 5

niiffi: ,i.r

’ * n «*x fhpotti

t - " - ^

toreliftlie engine to waxirnize^acceleration 306 * >e ^' ns ' Don't forget

Revs marks a total
departure from the normal
approach adopted by
software houses when
writing a racing game. Revs
is a simulation and not a
game at all. Even though
simulations usually appeal
only to those interested in
the pursuit being
simulated ', Revs had me on
the edge of my seat even
though car racing isn't
what I'd noramlly describe
as exciting.

useful at the beginning of a race
when you want to see whether a
car is close behind.

The car is controlled using
either the keyboard or keyboard
and joystick together. Although

Though at first
it's a bit difficult to play :
after some practice things
get a lot easier.

The sense of achievment
once you've managed to
complete your first lap is
just great. Apparently to
recreate the Si/verstone
and Brands Hatch circuits
on computer, complex
surveys where taken o f the
courses. It shows, the dips
and bumps of the original
tracks have all been
faithfully reproduced.
Geoff Crammond certainly
is an excellent programmer
and designer. Hopefully
we'll be seeing some more
of his work on the 64, like
his excellent Starship
Command.

looking rather ominous to a
novice, with practice this setup
soon becomes easy to use and is
in fact is quite comfortable and
logical.

When Revs is first encounte-

Acornsoft must be
congratulated for their
wholly original approach to
a simulation. Revs is one of
the most exciting games /
have ever played — an
incredible feeling o f
actually ' being there' is
generated by brilliant
graphics and realistic, but
initially awkward, control.

The program has many
superb touches throughout
and the presentation is of
the highest standard. There
are race games and there
are simulations, but there's
nothing quite like Revs.

red the car seems very difficult
to control, especially with the
keys, but once a driver has got
used to the conntrol method,
zooming round bends counter-
steering skids and overtaking in
some really tight situations
becomes second nature. Using
the gears is quite complicated
too, but again perseverence
pays off.

Revs has two famous British
tracks to race around — Silver-
stone and Brands Hatch. These
have been crammed into the 64
with attention to the smallest of
details. All the corners, stra
ights, bumps and slopes have
been reproduced, it is claimed.

When the game first loads you
are given two options: to prac-
tise or go for competition. Prac-
tise allows you to get used to the
the Teel' of the car and the track.
This mode clears the track of any
other cars and is therefore use-
ful if you want to go for a track
record.

Competition mode puts you in
a Grand Prix situation. Before
you can race you have to go
through a compulsory qualify-
ing period so you can notch up a
good lap time. How well you do
during this period effects your
grid placing at the start of the
race — the faster your time the
better your grid placing will be.
You can adjust the length of the
qualifying period to last bet-
ween five and twenty minutes,
obviously the longer the time
the better your chances of ach-
ieving a fast lap time.

Once this period is up the
program asks whether you want
to race or go through through
the qualifying procedure again.
If you take the racing option

you're then asked how many
laps the race is to be run. Once
that's been settled your time is
analysed, compared with that of
the other 19 cars and your star-
ting position on the grid is
calculated.

You're then placed on the
starting grid and the countdown
to the race commences. On-
screen information during the
race includes your current posi-
tion in the race, which driver is in
front of you and who is behind.
Your lap and split lap time is also
displayed so you can gauge how
well you're doing. Once the race
is finished, a table of all the cars'
finishing positions and times are
shown.

When racing you must drive
reasonably safely otherwise you
might collide with another car or
skid off. If you do then your car is
dropped back onto the track at
the crash point and you have to
start it up again which loses you
valuable seconds. A nice touch
is that if you do hit a car then it
stays on the track for the rest of
the race causing an obstruction

Revs comes impressively
packaged with two manuals and
a map of both race courses. One
manual explains the workings of
the car and gives hints and tips
on how it should be driven to
give the best results. It also
explains the basic principles of
racing, finding the optimum line
of a bend and the aerodynamics!
of the car. The other, written!
with the help of David Hunt,
gives a corner by corner break-
down of the two courses and
explains the best method of
tackling each one.

,V“\

JVsy3&SV5K5tfl TO

snJntfari

'u I < l ! I

iCSfc-

3 V 7 '

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Cyst

'3M(ifnV5>
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3 /

'v'toYir

ZZAPI 64 February 1986 33

■£-:>« DEUS

MACHINA

In October of last year AUTOMATA released this unusual
package for the Spectrum. It won the CTA Game of ^h%Vea|
award for 1985, for which Automata's Christian Penfold was
grateful, but which caused him to hit out at software distributors
for having failed to get the product out. At the time of the award
dinner, DEUS EX MACHINA had managed to sell less than a
thousand copies. Now, on the 64, ELECTRIC DREAMS are hoping

ff mgy w ; tlldo much b aMp T ^ J M
This is not so much a review, for DEUS EX MACHINA defies
review, more a look at a way of life — and death . . .

34 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

HELLO. I WANT YOU TO
PAUSE AFTER I COUNT YOU
DOWN, AND RECOM-
MENCE PLAYING AT THE
SCREEN'S REQUEST! FIVE -
FOUR - THREE - TWO - ONE -
PAUSE!

Tuesday evening , after tea and
compulsory prayers , the last
mouse tried to hide from Man-
kind , inside the Machine. Just
before it dies , as the nerve-gas
eased its sphincter , the last
mouse dropping caused a slight
accident. You may control the
progress of this Accident , on my
behalf ', and with my perm ission ,
and lead it up the telepath.

So starts a game which can
only be described as differ-
ent. What makes it different is
the game idea in which you
control the progress of an
accident as it grows, learns
and develops into a human
being and eventually dies.
Throughout the game you are
given a percentage score
which gets higher and lower
as the game proceeds. Deus
Ex Machina is unique, as
much of a milestone in com-
puter history as The Hobbit
with its graphics, because this
game has a synchronised
sound track! Tne cassette
case contains two tapes. One
is the computer game — two
games, one on each side —
and the other is the sound
track, also on either side. The
sound track — once — syn-
chronised plays all the while
the computer program is
running.

The sound is of very high
quality and stars Ian Dury, Jon
Pertwee, Donna Bailey, Fran-

kie Howerd, Edward Thomp-
son and Mel Croucher (Auto-
mata). In addition there is
music with a distinctly Auto-
mata-ish feel to it, but it is
definitely more serious in
tone than usual!

The game is not 'fun' in the
usual sense, it's more of an
experience. Next follows a
brief description of each of
the stages in the game.

All the screen's a stage , and all

the men and women merely
players. They have their exits
and their entrances, and one
person in their time plays many
parts, their act being seven ages.

At first the infant mewling in
the test tube's neck . . .

This stage of life consists of
seven sub-games in which
you help create a baby (it's
okay, all quite tastefully done
— well fairly anyway). The
machine (the central control-

ling force of the UK), which
rebels after witnessing the
accident (which is wonder-
fully animated) does most of
the work by stealing an egg.
The graphics are quite good
here, as all the time the
Defect Police (Frankie How-
erd) are out to get you be-
cause you are a defect, as was
the mouse.

Then the whining School Child ,
with cassette and shining morn-
ing face creeping like a snail
unwillingly to databank . . .

This stage consists of only
one game in which the Defect
Police must track you, for that
is their function. When you
are caught, you use your
powers to parry their psycho-
probes. Throw up your shi-
eld, move it clockwise and
anti-clockwise to protect
your entombed and revolving
form. The graphics are inter-
esting ana work especially
well on 'yourself. This part is
awe-inspiring and the sound
track, as ever, is well
performed.

And then the Lover, sighing like
a furnace, with a woeful video
made to their lovers' hologram .

This stage is similar to the last
in which you must touch the
lips with your cursor (!) as
they approach your body;
later on eyes replace the lips.
As a game, this stage is quite
easy and it is the last program
on side one. The graphics are
intriguing, with the sensuous
movements of the lips and
the hypnotic track by Donna

ZZAP ! 64 February 1986 35

Bailey as The Machine. At this
stage you turn over both
tapes, reload and re-synch ro-
nise side 2.

Then a Soldier , full of strange
oaths. Jealous in honour , sud-
den and quick in quarrel , see-
king hi -score, even in the laser's
mouth . . .

Now you are grown and as
Frankie Howerd intones the
chant, 'War crimes are easy',
the ground moves under
your feet and pitfalls appear
over which you must jump.
After a while the action
changes and mental tortures
sear down on you. You must
protect yourself by raising the
telepathic shields and reflec-
ting the blasts. At last The
Fertiliser (Ian Dury) says,

'Killing is wrong, even pre-
tend killing on little screens.
And people that sell violent
games to children should be
put away somewhere safe, 'til
they get well again.' At which
point The Machine rebels
against the Defect Police.

And the justice, in fair round
belly, with eyes severs and
clothes of formal cut. Full of
wise words and machine code .

Here you are shown, fat and
slow, your empire behind
you. Words appear on the
ground coming towards you.
The words are mixed up,
some good and some evil and
some connected with evil.
You must jump over the good
and stamp on the evil.

The Sixth Age shifts into the lean
and slippered pantaloon. With
spectacles on nose, their youth-
ful clothes well saved, a world
too wide for their shrunken
shank. And their adult speech
synthesiser turning again to-
wards a childish trebble, piping
and whistling in its sound.

You see your character old
and broken. You must trace
his heartbeat.

Your life is expressed as a
percentage score. The screen

an extension of the computer
video game by music, or an
extension of the 'concept
album' by the addition of

§ ames playing. In the end it
oesn't really matter — Deus
Ex Machina is a noble devel-
opment idea, which points
towards a new understanding
of what can be done with
computer games. It isn't
perfect but it is a lot more fun
than the idea might at first
sound. The graphics throug-
hout are always interesting

switches and you must split
up the blood cells so they do
not clot.

Observe the percentages.

Again the screen changes
and again you must trace the
heartbeat. So it goes on until
death and the end — of the
beginning.

Last scene of all, that ends this
strange, eventful history, is
Second Childishness, and mere
oblivion, without keyboard,
without monitor, without
power supply . . .

Deus Ex Machina is not for

people who want a straight-
forward shoot em up because
it simply isn't that sort of
game. In many senses it isn't a
game at all, although there
are humourous little games
within its scope. It becomes
an experience, aided by the
hypnotic sound track and the
emotive words. In fact it's
hard to decide whether this is

and sometimes absolutely
excellent. The sound track is
produced to a high level of
quality, so much so, that
together with its content, it's
alone worth a considerable
chunk' of the price.

This may be over a year old
now, but Deus Ex Machina is
as fresh and original today in
its Commodore reincarnation
as it was when it first appea-
red on the Spectrum.

We don't inherit the Earth from
our ancestors,

We borrow it from our children.

Imagine if we could begin our
little life all over again.

Imagine if it was all nothing
more than some electronic
game.

Imagine if I knew then what I
know now.

What did you learn ?

I can't quite remember, but I'll
try and be better next time . . .

Deus Ex Machina costs £9.99 on cassette only.

Compiled by Robin Candy & Roger Kean

36 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

FRIDAY THE 1 3TH

Domark, £8.95 cass, joystick only

D omark follow on in their
classic 'Game-of-the-
Film' series with new
release Friday the 13th, a story
of naughty Jason, a man with a
view to a kill. The program is not
all you get upon purchasing the
ame, included within the terri-
ingly packaged box are two
really frightening blood cap-
sules to scare and amaze your
friends. Also included is a
special effects competition
where you have to match up the
ghoulish noises with the cap-
tions listed on the cassette inlay.
The prize is one of five colour
monitors for the 64.

The game itself revolves
around well known mass mur-
derer Jason. Jason is vacation-
ing at the Crystal Lake holiday
camp. The only trouble is that
other people are also staying
there and, running true to type,
Jason decides to kill them one
by one. This is where you come
in — having been cast as one of
the 'plot's' ten characters by the
computer, you must play the
hero and save as many campers
as possible. Silly proles that they
are, the other inhabitants are

WSSBSSSSM

Wow ! I’ve never
been so frightened
in my life . It's like a
ghost from compu-
ting past coming
back to haunt me
with chunky gra-
phics , grating

music and retarded
gameplay . After all the hoo haa
about 4 will the game damage
our poor children's fragile iden-
tities’ it’s just a Mad Doctor
clone. The only possibly upset-
ting thing is the post purchase
shock of realising what you’ve
spent your money on. The ins-
truction sheet is really patroni-
sing and about as useful as the
two blood capsules included. As
is so often true about such film
of the game conversions, Friday
the 13th is a waste of time. Have
a Happy New Year, avoid this
product — and avoid Holiday
Camps by lakes.

Friday the 13th —
the computer
game is far more
horrific than the
film, but for diffe-
rent reasons . . .
The graphics and
sound are both att-
rocious and suit the
game well, what little there is of
it. I haven't played anything as
bad as this for a long time, and
quite frankly I'm not prepared to
waste any further words on it
However, as an addition to the
inlay blurb, I suggest you turn
off the television as well as the
lights when playing.

more interested in having a
good holiday than avoiding the
ice hockey-masked Jason. Thing
is that Jason is disguised as one
of the other guests and only
comes out of his shell when he's
trying to kill someone.

The best way of protecting
everyone is to set up a sanctuary
safe from Jason's clutches. First
the sanctuary cross needs find-
ing but it is hidden at a random
location in the holiday camp.
The cross needs to be picked up
and carted to a large but con-
tained room like the barn. Drop
the cross here and you've cre-
ated a safe room with everyone
in that location immune to
Jason's gory advances. All the
other campers need to be war-
ned and directed to the sanc-
tuary room for their own safety
but they like being on holiday so
much that after a few minutes
waiting around they're likely to
wander of for a sunbathe and
risk getting dismembered.

Looking quite similar to Crea-
tive Sparks' Mad Doctor, the
screen is represented from a
sjde-on pseudo three-dimen-
sional view. The character in
your control is moved with the
joystick in all eight directions.
The fire button allows an object
to be picked up and placed in the
one object store on the status
screen. If not moving, fire also
drops objects but when on the
run fire uses the object in your
grasp. Most of the items around
the camp are from Jason's wea-
pon collection that he carelessly
leaves lying around the place.

Like all good villains, Jason
dresses in black when not dis-

guised as a camper and attacks
his victims with a big white stick.
If you stumble across Jason
then repeated bashings with the
weapon in your possession
should kill him. With Jason
dead, the next level is entered
with a replacement Jason and
you playing a different holiday-
maker at Crystal Lake. If bore-
dom sets in because you don't
enjoy being the hero, it's possi-
ble to rush about massacring the
camp residents instead, al-
though when you're the last one
left Jason's attention shift's in
your direction.

Underneath the main screen
is a status section, displaying
various bits of choice informa-
tion. The eight campers are
shown on the status screen,
those done in by Jason are re-
placed with a little tombstone
engraved RIP. A face of 'your-
self is shown on the left hand
side and as more of the campers
get smeared the more your hair
sticks up as things get frigh-
tening. Next to the portrait an
energy bar shows what life is left
in you and score is shown next
to that. If the energy band hits
zero then a ghastly synthesised
scream leaks from the speaker
as the game ends.

If a sanctuary room is set up
then the other persons in peril
can be sent there. If, by mistake,
Jason gets sent off to the sanc-
tuary room all the people there
run off terrified. Throughout the
game various effects are em-
ployed to try and scare you.
Sometimes when a holiday
camper gets the chop a gory
picture flips up to a synthetic

SHIVER, SHUDDER, SHAKE! — the grinning mask of Jason

A pood example of the pseudo 3D perspective — the church, could
this be sanctuary?

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BBUBC

Yet another suc-
cessful superhype
for Domark! After
grabbing every-
one’s interest with
i rubber bats, fake
'blood, trick skewer-
through-the-heads
and clever eye-cat
ching adverts they finally rel-
ease a very poor product. How
Domark expect a person of any
intelligence to read the banal
drivel on the cassette inlay and
take it seriously I just don’t
know I The graphics are of very
low quality with pathetically
animated sprites, 3D which just
doesn’t work and a badly drawn
(and tiny j landscape. The
music's terrible too, consisting
of really basic tunes sung with
even more basic, ear-grating
voices. The only redeeming
feature about the sound is the
realistic scream which the
Commodore utters at regular
intervals throughout the game.
The most frightening aspect of
the game is that some punters
will have bought it by the time
this review is published and not
had a chance to read about how
bad it really is.

scream. Lots of spooky music is
put in to add to the atmosphere,
instructions on playing the
game are clear and, to quote the
inlay,:

'Before playing the game
make sure you:

1) Close and look all doors,
windows and curtains

2) Turn of all lights, use a
candle if necessary.

3) Make sure granny isn't in
the room.

4) Set the computer volume at
maximum, load the game and
you

will be surprised!'

Presentation 41 %

Attractive packaging disguises
lack of options and a horrid
game.

Graphics 16%

Amazing programming
technique puts the machine into
Vic 20 emulation mode with
fatty sprites wobbling
uncovincingly around on a
cardboard cut out backgrounds.

Sound 28%

Incongruous music, thin
screams and the odd hacking
'bop' as another victim hits the
ground.

Hookability 19%

The graphical disaster area tells
the tale.

Instability 16%

Really, there isn't much.

Value For Money 1 7%

Blood capsules are fun.

Overall 13%

Surely Fridays were never this
dire?

HHiii

ZZAPI64 February 1986 37

touch4 11

8 Zorro is very rem-
iniscent of Bruce
Lee in both its looks
and gamepfay, al-
though this game
is far harder than
last year's classic .
Some of the puzz-
les that you have to
complete within it are rather
obscure and take quite some
time to figure out making the

f ame somewhat slow to play.

here is some action when you
have to fight with the guards and
leap about the more perilous
parts of the screen , but mostly
the game involves collecting
things and putting them else-
where. The graphics are reason-
able , but the four colours used
are rather bland. The sound is
awful with a really annoying
tune which grates throughout If
you like this sort of game then
you could well be pleased with
this, but if you like your action a
little faster and hotter then you
might find yourself bored play-
ing Zorro.

JBWk. Datasoft seem to
be trying to write
■KJ; their games to for-
} mu fa. The way
J J Zorro plays, the
way it looks, even
the way it sounds is
m ff all very similar to
their previous hits
Conan and Bruce Lee. Graphic-
ally compared to recent releases
for the 64, Zorro is just so crude,
the sprites are lumpy and of
extremely poor definition. Scen-
ery is mostly of just four colours
and soon gets dull and repeti-
tive. There is some fun to be had,
running around the course, and
jumping off various objects is
great, but if you start to try out
any of the problems you soon
find that a losing battle is being
fought. I'm afraid that despite
the enormous potential of a
Zorro game, Datasoft have real-
ly lost out. Seems the same as
many other games-of-the-fifm
conversions.

poline to get to a previously
inaccessable platform.

The game allows quite a bit of
interaction between the main
sprite and the background. Most
of the scenery can be climbed,
bounced on or run over. In add-
ition to prone, inebriated Ban-
ditos (or is that Baditoes?),
there's a number of trampolines
around the town which are great
fun to jump on.

As in nearly all arcade adven-
tures nowadays new screens are
introduced into view once Zorro
legs it off the side of the screen.
Soundwise there are various
spot effects plus an atmospheric
latin rhythm in the background.

action packed monochromatic
sprite ready to defend the good
and fight for the innocent, able
to run, jump, brandish a sword
and pick up objects. All the
functions are accessed from the
joystick with up for jump, diag-
onals for jump left and right and
fire for pickup/drop. The differ-
ent rooms take up the whole
screen except for the top two
lines which contain information
on your score and how many
Zorros there are in reserve.

After the abduction, being a
superhero of brain as well as
brawn, Zorro decides it's best
not to pursue the now departed
brigand and decides instead to
rescue the senorita's lace hand-
kerchief, dropped during the
tussle. Knowing that Garcia is
likely to take her to the local jail,
Zorro starts on a quest to get the
objects that he needs for the
journey to the local lock up.

The main problem is to get
through the catacombs beneath
the Mission. Three keys are
needed to get through the maze

R emember sitting on the
back row of Saturday
morning cinema, gawping
at the courageous antics of that
Spaniard Superhero Zorro. Well
now your youth may be recalled
with Datasoft's version of Zorro,
an arcade adventure spanning
14 screens. As in any good ad-
venture the object is to rescue a
much distressed damsel held in
the clutches of Colonel Garcia,
the villian of the piece.

Whilst strolling down the
street one day, Zorro witnesses
the vile abduction of a fair sen-
orita by the evil colonel.

Zorro is game designed in a
similar presentation to Data-
soft's other hits Conan and
Bruce Lee. Zorro himself is an

and into the jailhouse and can be
collected once some complex
but logical puzzles have been
completed. Conveniently, any
object that requires collection to
further your cause, flashes on

Zorro's

and off. To collect
sword must be placed over the
object and the fire button
pushed. There are other items
scattered around the screens
that, though not used as keys
within the maze, help you get at
the keys. Collectable in the same
way as the keys, when picked up
they replace Zorro's sword. To
use what you've picked up it's
usually a case of dropping the
object in the right place. One of
the funniest problems to solve
involves the wine bottle. Once
you manage to collect it, Zorro
must be guided to the cantina
where a drunken Bandito is sit-
ting. Upon giving him the bottle
of wine and he promptly passes
out, allowing Zorro to hop onto
his belly and use it as a tram-

S Another film spin-
off from across the
Atlantic. Zorro is a
really energetic
dude, he can bo-
unce on all sorts of
things, like sofas
and even bull
horns (painful eh} I
Zorro also seems to have trem-
endous strength, he can carry a
plant half his height, single-
handedly by the top leaf and still
bound around with the greatest
of ease. Apart from some minor
hiccups Zorro seems to be a very
average game but requires a lot
of thinking a wondering how to
get things going, especially the
fire. After spending a few games
getting used to its quirks, I soon
realised that there was more
behind this TV spoof than first
met the eye, like getting things
to weigh down lifts and other
oddities. The game has some
good features — like the more
times you bounce up and down
then the higher you get — Dyn-
amite Dan style. Killing the
baddies is too easy and makes
Zorro very average for me.

Mmm

38 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

US Gold/Datasoft, £9.95 cass, £14.95 disk, joystick only

The key to success and an abducted Senorita in sight.

Presentation 45%

No real options to be found
except for start game.

Graphics 45%

Yawny four colour backdrops
with sprites in
monochromovision (tm)

Sound 34%

The music is a real pain and will
have many a gamester reaching
for the volume control.

Hookability 74%

At first great fun clambering all
over the landscape . . .

Our hero checks out the bar full of drunken Banditos

Instability 68%

. . . but the problems are just too
obscure to make any real
headway.

Value For Money 72%

Usual US Gold price for a very
run of the mill piece of software

Overall 78%

Though some enjoyment may
be gleaned from Zorro by avid
platformists most people will
probably tire quite quickly of this
cliched release.

(

ATARI

400/800WL/XE

48K

CBM

64/128

fell! 3 h *

Cassette f 8. 95 Dish £12.95

Of^VtARt sof TVV/ARE > ENC

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Cassette £8.95 Disk £12.95

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Available fro^a'^S^^^^^ftvware-

ruj * * ■ ■ —

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ADDRE55

| QAME(5)
W COMPUTER
//V. | enclose

was Quasimodo... »
then came his 1

“Revenge”, now ii
you can take a swin

W K*M"\ AMSTRAD
&0 COMMODORE 64

elephone: 061 832 6633
elex: 669977

IPECTRUM48KCHM

Ocean Software Limited
6 Central Street • Manchester

cted branches of:(j$^),WHSMITH ,^P!!S!!lOS,WOOlWiMitft.
SDectrum Shops and all good software dealers.Trade enquiries welcome

Ocean Software is

are noth/nq if,
l r Phosis of the

Metaphysical
a work o fartti

PLUGGING THE
PLUG

From our Electrical expert
Duraplug have released
something which should help
Commodore owners in the form
of a four-in-one 13 amp plug'
called the MultiLine plug. It
allows four appliances to be
connected to one socket without
the need for plugs and adaptors.
The MultiLine is on sale at
around the five pound mark
which makes it considerably
cheaper than buying four plugs
and an adaptor, its
manufacturers claim.

The unit is available in black or
white thermoplastic, making it
highly resistant to impact, Gary
Liadon and most other
household disasters, and should
be available now, from electrical
and hardware stores.

CBM

LINE

ON THE

Commodore's new C128, the
'three-in-one' micro, has been
favourably received by many
software houses. Although
most are using the machine for
developing C64 compatible
software at the moment, relief at
the machine's high construction
quality is evident. The machine
has now been in the shops for a
while but it is still too early to tell
exactly how it fared over the
Christmas buying period (not
least I suspect, because I'm
writing this in early December).
Commodore are looking for a
good response to this machine
as although their new flagship
model, the Amiga, promises to
blow the opposition away in
terms of capability. Commodore
have a lot of ground to make up
this year if they are to reverse
the recent trend in losses and
restore confidence from their
American bankers.

Although some of their losses
last year can be accounted for in
terms of development costs for
the Amiga, many of their
problems can be put down to the
Summer marketing madness
with the Commodore 64 when
several chain stores were selling
them for less than trade price to
cut their own losses. Bad luck
seemed to plague the company
with the ill-fated Cl 6 and Plus 4
models which finally died last
year. A major deal to supply
stocks of these machines to one

cwBupr^jjw^ss'ONisrs ;||||

ZZAP! 64 maaa ’

creations as u/am S Saturday shonn in„TA°, the di 9itised d vn=J:?L

of the high street chains did littie
to give the machine any position
in the cut-throat and cut-price
marketplace by the end of the
year.

The new, fast disk drives for
the Cl 28 are still scarce
however, and the C128D, much
talked about last year, seems to

have quietly disappeared
without comment from the
company. Whatever
Commodore have in mind for
this year, let's hope they judge
the market with a little more
foresight than they have in
previous years.

NICK'S NEW NOW
GAMES . . .

A report compiled by our
compilations correspondent

Our man with the whip, Roger
Kean has just thrown me a copy
of Now Games 2 from Nick
Alexander's Virgin games.
Games available on this latest
compilation are Air Wolf,
Chuckle Egg 2, Tir Na Nog,
Cauldron and World Cup II.
Rather surprisingly, considering
the first compilation cast £8.95,
this one costs £8.95. Isn't the
news column just a joy to read
when I write it . . .

ZZAPI64 February 1986 41

QUICKSILVAS
SUICIDE MISSION

Latest title from Quicksilva,
Death wake puts the player into
the midst of a world wide
conflict set in a pseudo-WWII
era. You play the Admiral in
Chief of the Homelands' fleet
and have to buy time for your
country to put together an army
capable of retaking territory lost
to the Alliance.

Unfortunately, the enemy is
more sophisticated in almost
every respect, especially in the
field of research and as it
transpires, they are only a short
time from developing the
atomic bomb. Previous
attempts to destroy the
laboratory deep in a
mountainside have failed and
only the ship The Undaunted'
has the firepower to make a final
attack. Said to be a mixture of
arcade game and strategy, the
game costs £7.95 and again,
should be on sale by the time
you read this . . .

Interesting f

sr re

ST p*!«

ter d «•

Answers ° n “
postcard P*
ase, but not to

FOUNDATIONS OF

: 4

Firebird are working on a new
game project called Empire. An
Elite type game, it's said to
employ some stunning use of
both two and three dimensional
graphics. Apparently given a
1 930's Flash Gordon treatment,
the screen display takes
advantage of a pulp Sci-Fi feel.
Gauges seem to be water
operated as you can see liquids
bubbling away as they rise and
fall in response to external
stimuli. Trading is the name of
the game in this saga set in the
'golden age of science fiction'.
No prices or other details are
available yet, but Empire is set
for release sometime around
late January. As the saying
goes, watch this space for
further developments.

MORE CBM

Oh dear. It has transpired that
Commodore's Cl 28, intended
as the step up for C64 owners, is
not entirely compatible with its
predecessor after all. Despite
the assurance of Commodore's
advertising, some small
changes have been made to the
display chip. Malk Palmer,
Commodore UK programmer,
has explained in the press that
there are two extra registers on
the chip which some programs
may have accidentally written

over, though he points out that
they should not have.

Another problem which has
cropped up is associated with
some fast loaders. The exact
nature of the problem appears
to have avoided isolation so far,
but Frankie Goes to Hollywood
is the first casualty of this minor
incompatibility. Mr Palmer
advises anyone encountering
such problems to get in touch
with the software company in
case they have issued an
updated version.

On a less worrying note,
Commodore are hoping that
they will be able to launch a
basic version of the Amiga
(minus the monitor) for under
£1000. A price somewhere
between £800 — £1 000 is being
aimed for. Important to note,
however, that Commodore's
official line on this is that no
price for the machine has been
fixed to date.

OLD THEME FOR A
NEW ADVENTURE

In a press release that defies
understanding without careful
scrutiny. Global software have
announced Old Scores. It's a
graphic adventure set around
the arts complex of London's
South Bank. Some features
include over 240 locations;
music by W A Mozart, The Dice
Waltz, in which 36 bars of music
can be randomly transposed
and always produce a real
minuet; multi-character,
real-time adventuring (make of
that what you will) and a
voucher entitling the purchaser
to a free guided backstage tour
of the Royal Festival Hall. This
strange piece of software is due
out at some point in the new
year. A price for the Commodore
version was not available at the
time of writing.

MORE FROM MELBOURNE

Though the ZZAP! 64 review team have yet to taste the delights of
the latest offering from Melbourne House, Rock TV Wrestle, more
news reaches us as each day passes. You are Gorgeous Greg, the
blonde hero of the piece (is this a little narcisistic — the program
being the brainchild of Gregg Barnett). There are nine opponents for
you to beat to a pulp with a variety of nasty sounding manoeuvres
(Turnbuckle Fly and Power Lift being two that spring to mind).

Your opponents' names are no less bemusing; Lord Toff, Bad
Barney Trouble and Molotov Mick, to name but a few of the
adversaries' alliterated titles. But what's the game like, Paula? We'll
keep you informed.

"YUK//"

42 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

•WV^VW.

ROBCOM TO THE
RESCUE

A useful report from our tea-
making utility
Robcom, the people Liddon
leaves lunch for, have launched
a couple of goodies to brighten
you r new year. First of these is
their Magic Monitor Interface
which allows you to connect that
Cl 28 you got for Christmas to
any monitor and get the 80
column display (not normally
possible without an 80 column
monitor). And the cost for
avoiding the need to buy a new
monitor is £19.95.

On the software front,

Robcom have released a Disk
Alignment Kit for the 1541 drive.
Every time you load a piece of
software (well, 99% of the time)
it's protected by read errors on
the disk. You can hear the drives
banging as they try to cope but
this does knock the drive heads
slightly out of true. Load the
Alignment disk, follow the
prompts on the screen, and
everything should be tickety-
boo. No need to open the drive.
The price of accuracy is £9.95. As

RETURN OF

ARTHUR

PENDRAGON

Ultimate have sent us cover art
for their new game. Dragon
Skulle (yes, it is supposed to
spelt that way). Another Arthur
Pendragon game (remember,
he's the hero from Blackwyche),
this one employs a new
perspective view, supposedly
nearer to that in Knight Lore
than Blackwyche. As you can
see, the art looks superb but I'm
afraid that at the time of writing,
we have little else to go on.
Nevertheless, avoiding major
hitches, the game should be in
the shops by the time this little
masterpiece goes to print. Price
for the punters is a mere £9.95.

a final note, rumours are
reaching this Mere Mortal
Minion of another new Robcom
cartridge called Killer Game
which will contain some fairly
interesting features for those
interested in developing their
own software. However,
nothing else is known at this
time — whets yer appetite tho'
dunnit . . .

ZZAP! 64 BINDERS

At last — they're here!

Yes, the 1985 ZZAP! Magazine Binder is yours for a
paltry sum of £4.50* inclusive.

Each binder takes twelve issues of ZZAP! held in

tooled, gold bound, Moroccan leather version would
nave cost about £150 each, so we've settled for the
next best thing, a rich maroon with gold-ish tooling
on the front cover and the spine.

Please send me

Name

Address

ZZAP! Binder(s) at £4.50 each*

AND FINALLY ... AN OFFICE UPDATE

EXCLUSIVE! Rignall's ego forced to by its own hair jel (but does it
shave its armpits?); Liddon's stomach employed by Newsfield as a
couch in reception; Penn denies his shirt was originally white — but
promises to wash it before Easter; Mr Kean (have to be careful here)
announces 'I have been unplugged' — a translation next month and
Masterson lives — achievement enough for him, I suppose . . .

Postcode

I enclose a cheque/postal order made payable to
Newsfield Ltd for £4.50*.

* UK price only. Continental Europe and Overseas
orders, please add £2 per item ordered

ZZAP! BINDERS, POBOXIO, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE STB 1DB

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 43

SAM SHOVEL -HI..... IN SEARCH

nljp

IT MS A DARK
NIGHT... TOO PARK.

/ MADE MV WAY TO
PIER Q TO MEET THE
CHICK WITH THE BLONDE
HAIR. SHE WAS TO arrive
BY SEA -PLANE AT II IS PM

For a bit of fun, the Wacky and
Zany, Zany and Wacky person-
ages down at Mastertronics
Towers in London have decided
to offer a lucky reader the
chance of an expenses-paid
CRAZY DAY OUT.

Judging by our visits to them,
and their visits to us, when crazy
things happen quite normally, if
they really try to give someone a
Mad Day Out, things could get
crazeee. Like loonie. Gabba
Gabba Hey! And so on

- \ Cf; . ‘C; .. c ■.

SHE ARRIVES ON TIME , BUT KNOWS NOTHING
ABOUT THE SOFTWARE - A DEAD LEAP....

The MAD range of games are
a bit crazy — crazy on price. For
£2.99 you get an awful lot of
game. How do they do it? Why
do they do it? Will they keep on
doing it? What is it, anyway? Ho,
ho. The butterflies are going
green again.

It's the kind of thing that
happens when you're shut up in
a poky attic in Ludlow, forced to
live on Old Flatulence Bitter as
dispensed from the Frog and
Lilypad and write competitions
all the time. Butterflies, that is.
Green ones. (And a few other
colours too, but we'd better not
go into that here, had we?)

So, my lovlies, "What do you
have to do to be in with a chance
of having a Zany Day Out with
the lads and lasses of Master-
tronic?" I hear you mumble.
Simple. Reproduced on this
page is an unfinished cartoon
strip, starring the Secret Agent
With No Name.

All you have to do is complete
the story. You could, if you felt
you were a bit of a cartoon artist,
draw a couple more frames. Or
the rest of a comic book. If, on
the other hand, your penman-
ship is not so hot, there's no
reason why the story couldn't be
finished off in written form. It's
entirely up to you how you go
about completing the story. Just
do it before 14th February, and
whizz your entry to ZZAP!
CRAZY DAY, PO BOX 10,
LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE, SY8
1DB.

WELL, ANY
BRIGHT IDEAS

A LITTLE BIRDIE iT
TOLD ME YOU MIGHTS ~
GIVE ME A BREAK ALL
ON THIS SOPTWAREJ^S

case w rrr — ua

/ah so, maybe ^

CHECK THE CLOTHES
BASKETS OUT BACK/

s^HOW ABOUT >
CHINA SAM AT
THE LAUNDRY!

-s. (i '/7)m

■

IMSmB -Jp fh

44 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

^E3F

"* COMING SOON ON

S " C E SS"

DISK £ia.95 CASS £9.9_

mmm

VjV

From the

RICHARD DONNER

Production

Based on the story
by

STEVEN SPEILBERC

• ui:E f.tiu Hi ee:ift

Lives ?

' ■ •• . ' K

7 1 I"? ^

HI |

ii i *

l.l A

Exciting Multiscreen Action and Adventure!

u.S. Cold Limited, unit 10, The Parkway industrial Centre, Heneage Street,
Birmingham B7 4LY. Telephone 021-359 3020. Telex: 337268.

Datasoft is a registered trademark of Datasoft Inc.

The Goonies is a trademark of Warner Bros. Inc.

©Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. and Reilla Music Corp.

iGonami

Imagine Software is available from:

John Menzies

WOOtWORTH. LASKYS, Rumbelows

_ i,WHSMITH J/A

Spectrum Shops and all good dealers.

Imaaine Software f 1984) Limited • 6 Central Street. Manchester M2 5NS*Tel: 061 834 3939.Telex: 669977

THERE

WALKING

HIGH STREE
WHEN WHO
SHOULD I

BUMP INTO

GARY LlDDON's a right gossip when he's out
shopping in Ludlow's main thoroughfare, the
High Street. He can't resist stopping for a
chat when he just happens to bump into
someone. Last month it was Jeff Minter, and

now, coming out of Fine Fare loaded down by
a shopping bag full of Twinings tea bags,
who should he spot but T ony Crowther
popping in for some groceries.

Golly, if it isn't young Tony
Crowther. Haven't seen you for
an age. What have you been
doing over the last couple of
months?

I've been writing the Atari
version of William. I've been
helping with the Spectrum
version, doing the graphics and
gameplan. Just basically
developing the software for it
and telling the programmers
what to write.

Have you been working on the
64 at all?

Commodore and slot them into
the source code on a word
processor on the Atari. But really
I've just been working on the
Atari, took me about a month to
learn the machine.

What exciting stuff have you
been doing today then?

Reading through source files.
That's what I've been doing
today.

Looking through ZZAP! issue
one interview, it says you don't
like games. Is that still true?

Not really on the 64. 1 have been
using the 64 as a development
machine for the Atari. I define all
the characters I need on the

Oh, wait a minute. I've gotto like
some games now. Like Little
Computer People. I'm
depressed at the moment

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 47

because I wanted to write
Marble Madness.

Why don't you write it then?

Because someone else has got
rights to it.

You could do it anyway, create a
similar type of game like

Gyroscope.

No, that'd be cheating. I think
I've sussed out most of the
routines for it but someone else
has got the rights.

Do you think 64 software has
improved over the last six
months?

Yeah. A hell of a lot. The
American stuff is just getting
better because the garbage we
had about a year ago was just
the old American software. The
stuff they're sending over now is
really clever.

Do you think things can still
improve on the 64? Do you think
it's reached its limit?

No. Nowhere near it yet. There's
still a lot there to go for.

Are you more settled in Wizard
Developments now?

Yeah. Just a little, (laughs) I geta
chance to write some games for
other machines like Atari and
Spectrum. Well I didn't actually
write the Spectrum one, though
I took a big hand in it, but it's
based on one of my games, first
time ever.

There's going to be Amstrad
conversions soon of your earlier
games, aren't there?

We just saw a prototype of

Suicide Express and Sorry,

I'll rephrase that, Black Thunder.
It looks really good, very fast.
Scrolls brilliantly, both top and
bottom screens. Saw a Gryphon
for the Amstrad and it's been
sent back about eight times. The
same guy whose doing Black
Thunder is doing William. He's
doing a really good job of it.

Are you going to write for any of
the new 1 6 bit machines like the
Amiga or ST?

I don't know. I think I'll stick to
the home market for the
moment and see what happens
later on. My next project for the
home market is pretty hush
hush. I can't really say anything.
In the first issue of ZZAP! I
mentioned a game with a
difference — well that'll be
released after the next one.
Thinking of a title for that one is
awkward. We thought of
something like Quadruples or
something daft like that, but we
couldn't think of a name that'll fit
it.

Is that the only major advantage
you can see with the machine?

There's nothing else really. It's
still a 64 with some extra bits
and as far as I can see there's no
real reason for me to have the
extras apart from the nice
keyboard.

Another £35 for a nice keyboard
then.

Well I don't know. It looks nice
on the table top. One of the best
machines I've seen for looking
nice. I think it's worth it for the
design they've put into it. It's
such a nice looking machine.

Do you think the software
market's reached a plateau?

It's just the basic old thing. Good
software sells and crap software
doesn't.

Any Criticisms of ZZAP! at all?

Well, apart from the odd review.

(Rushing him on . . . ) Is there
anyone you admire within the
software company?

I wouldn't say admire. As far as I
can see developing software is
just a job. I don't really admire
anyone for it. You get a lot of
friends in the software business.
I'm really friendly with Jeff and
Software Projects. It's just like a
big family really. If you need
help you get it.

What do want to do ultimately
with your life?

At the moment I'm getting a
house. I'd like to live on my own.
Professionally I've no idea.
Hopefully I'll get onto bigger
machines. I know I'm capable of
business software but there's no
real need for me to do that now.

Well, must be getting on now.
Nice bumping into you Tony.
'Bye.

'Bye.

Has anything changed since
your 'Crowther on Minter'
statement in issue one?

No. Except we're going skiing in
two weeks time. It's in the north
of France. There's me, Jeff and a
guy called Zaphod. It was all
arranged on Compunet.

How did you get involved with
Compunet?

I talked to Commodore and they
said they could get me one for
£70' I said get me one and they
did. I haven't been on the net

recently. When I was going on
last time I was actually working
on the Commodore. So I'd just
plug in the modem and log on.
This time I've been working on
the Atari and it means getting
another computer out and
setting it all up.

Who's your design method
when writing a game?

along. First I laid out the
backgrounds. William was the
most difficult one because
there's a lot more, the game
changes so much. Not like Black
Thunder where everything's
continuous and you just add bits
as you go. On William
everything completely changes
from one stage to another.
There are about twelve zones.

Well in the case of William the
whole gameplan was set out in
tasks. The tasks weren't actually
decided at the time of writing
but I built them up as I went

Do you like Commodore's 128?

Well let's put it this way. Since
I've had my 128, I've thrown my
64 away because I can't use the
keyboard any more. The 128
keyboard is so nice that once
you go back to the 64 it's just like
hitting bricks.

J m ;

ill liili! Ill

gif! fill

; IIP

: :

48 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

A number one arcade bit \or

your computer

The ONLYmartial arts game YOU ever realty wanted.

Travel through the wizards temple to rescue the fair maiden, beware the
weapon weilding henchmen, defeat the deadly guardian of the five floors.

Your only defense is your martial art skills. TAPE

£9.95

DISK

£14.95

COMMODORE 64/128

DATA EAST

U.S. Gold Limited, Unit 1 0, Parkway Industrial Centre, Heneage Street,
Birmingham B7 4LY. Telephone: 021-359 8881

■ v : &

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iffiuSi'A .

HMPMHM i MIPHiiRiHI

^f> || - ,*V &:.■• . ■ V. ■".• • . '* : - .; - : ■■•• r' "...■

>< *>>>>•*

jtgpHp

fmWtl i >

Music has become such an important and
interesting aspect of Commodore 64 games
that the people who write it are worth catch-
ing hold of for a chat. SEAN MASTERSON
was sent 'home' to Manchester to talk to the
man behind so much of Ocean's great com-
positions, MARTIN GALWAY. But he found
the maestro had flown . . .

I t's not every week that I get a
good excuse for a long week-
end (just most weeks). Last
week I was asked to take on
British Rail once more in an
attempt to get back to my home
city of Manchester and interview
the man responsible for some of
the most remarkable music in
arcade games at the moment,
Martin Galway. No problem
with that, thought I in my usual
innocent manner. What could be
easier than getting a train stra-
ight from Ludlow, interview the
man himself and relax for the
rest of the weekend? Oh, but
there was plenty that could go
wrong, if only I knew . . .

The trip was simple enough
and yes the train was on time (so
much so that I almost missed it
— I was beginning to wonder
why BR didn't simply re-sche-
dule their trains to arrive twenty
five minutes late). I wandered
through the packed city centre,
past the monumental Central
Library and before you could say
Taumatawhackatangihangikua-
uotamateaturipukakapickimau-
nghahoronuka — pukawhena-
whackatanatahumatakuaitanat-
urikapamikitura, I was being
confronted by Ocean's legend-
ary Tropical Fish Tank.

Now this is where things
began to go sadly wrong. Martin
wasn't there. He had been rush-
ed off to London at short notice
and would not be back until the
evening. Hmmm, tricky. But
thanks to a miraculous piece of
technology (courtesy of British
Telecom) and a timely piece of
Newsfield-Ocean co-operation, I
Iff ^managed to interview Mr
Galway while he was cruising up
the Ml via the car phone (who
says programmers aren't jet-
setters?) and so what
must be one of the fastest long
distance interviews ever carried
out for a computer publication
(Mad Masterson sets a new
record). -

50 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

~ - "

prominent Spuenc
one of the program
has souped up an
with the result that c

. .

ZZAP ! 64 February 1986 51

First I was sent deep within the
bowels of the Ocean Empire and
cast into the programmers' pit.
Actually, they're a marvellously
friendly bunch who set me up
with the first decent cup of
coffee I'd had that day before
unveiling their masterplan. They
seemed pleased too, that sub-
titles would not be needed to
speak to a fellow Northerner (we
at Newsfield try to please, you
see). Soon after being treated to
a glimpse of how the Oceaners
develop games in-between get-
ting different computers to talk
to each other, the phone buzzed
and I was talking to the nephew
of the famous flautist James
Galway about how he created
his kind of music.

But before I go on any further,

I had better explain some of the
complications of interviewing
somebody who's doing the bet-
ter part of a — er, seventy miles
an hour. Throughout this coun-
try of ours, there are a number of
different Cellnet receivers to
cope with signal reception of
radio phones in different areas.
These work in a relay to get the
call back to you. If you exit one
area during a call, the system
disconnects you while it finds a
better route for the call. Is no-
thing simple? The result in this
case was, of course, that I was
never on the phone for more
than a few minutes at a time so
our conversation was crackly

and disjointed — but interesting
... * •

SID chip to its limits' but cer-
tainly brilliantly designed musi-
cally with atmosphere and char-
acter that often makes the work
of his competitors' seem barren
by comparison.

One thing Martin seemed to
stress very strongly was his faith
in that remarkable device, the
SID chip. 'I've already found an
interesting way to get more than
one sound from a single voice
simultaneously but it's a trade
secret,' he said. But more to the
point, 'I don't believe in using
something like MIDI to transfer
something (from a synth) to the
machine which the voices might
not be able to handle. I prefer
working purely within the limi-
tations of the machine itself.'
CLICK! I was confronted by a
dead phone line! Martin was
obviously entering a new recep-
tion area.

While waiting to be re-con-
nected, I wondered whether he
had any reservations about tak-
ing advantage of some of the
Commodore's capabilities such
as the filters. 'No, the filters are
too unreliable. A brilliant result
on one machine is no guarantee
of satisfactory sound on ano-
ther. The filters have been gre-
atly improved on the C128,
though. Perhaps when more
people have upgraded to that,
i'll take advantage of them — not
until then though.'

So how do the tunes get from
his mind into the silicon maze of
an eight bit micro? He is inspired
The first thing to sort out was by a number of sources; the
exactly how many games Martin electronic orchestrations of
had been involved in. The list is Jean Michel Jarre and frantic,
quite impressive. The Ne\

Ending Story , Hyperspo
Roland Rat, DT's Decathlon a
more recently Streeth
sformers,

perhaps most outsta
work Rambd^h^h
a variety of themes — not al-
ways complex or indeed remar-
kable in terms of 'stretching the

has constructed his work on a
small keyboard, pure data is all
that needs to be transfered to
the computer. In a way, this is a
pity because the explanation
belies the complexity of such a
fine tuned (if you'll pardon the
pun) process.

There are other considera-
tions as well. Martin develops
the music at the same time the
game itself is being program-
med. He only has a relatively
small space in which to work, in
terms of memory. Rambo's
eight or nine major themes had
to fit inside 8K! How he did it is
another of his 'trade secrets' no
doubt. But it appears to cause no
real problems and he seems
content to work in whatever
memory environment he has to.

Some of the voices and effects
have seen their way onto more
than one game (though in a
modified form). Martin does
have a few favourites. 'There's
one that resembles a trumpet
sound I used in Hypersports
(CLICK — wait — another coffee)
which I like to re-use as long as it
doesn't become repetitive.' So
does he think he's taken the use
of old SID as far as is possible?
'No. In that piece you did on Rob
Hubbard, you said that he had
stretched the SID chip to its
limits and that's ridiculous.
There are plenty of things you
can do with it yet.' Well, that
sounds promising if nothing
else. CLIuK — Thank goodness
for that. I was running out of
ideas for questions. Interroga-
tion over the phone was never
one of my strong points.

Finally, I asked Martin if there
were any other things he would
enjoy working on. He wouldn't
mind doing an entire game him-
self but realises that his forte is
obviously programming orig-
inal musical themes for others'
games. But you never can tell.
Apart from that, he sounded
distinctly enthusiastic about
playing on an Amiga and putting
that through its paces (but who
can blame him). Whatever the
Micro Maestro turns his digital
fingers to next, it's sure to add
hitherto unforseen depth and
attraction to the game to which it
is applied. In a field which is
rapidly becoming the domain of
specialists, Martin Galway is
becoming set to leave the others
behind.

And so I headed out of the
Ocean offices and off to see
some friends. The cold winter
night had fallen. The city grime
and gloom alleviated only by the
Christmas lights across town
failed to deaden my enthusiasm
for a city so full of remarkably
talented people (after all, I come
from there). I reached Piccadilly
and caught my (late) bus. Listen-
ing to a treasured recording of
Duke's Travels on my Walkman,

I sat back and thought, now that
was a different kind of interview!

lilt

Retailers don't always have everything in stock you
might want, but if it is within our power to get it for
you, then we will. Any of the software reviewed in this
or any issue of ZZAP! 64 can be ordered using the form
below — in fact any available CBM 64 software that

exists we will get for you.

«r "

ZZAP! 64 Mail Order is backed by the resources of
Crash Mail Order (in association with the Spectrum
magazine CRASH) which has been supplying more
than 100,000 Spectrum users with mail order items for
over 20 months, so you can be sure of the very best in

service. f

There's no mail order catalogue involved — just use
the prices quoted in the pages of ZZAP! 64 or the
known retail price. If you have any queries just ring the
number shown on the form and our staff will advise
you. Anyone may take advantage of the discount
coupons on the form which allow £1 off orders worth
more than £20 and 50p off orders worth more than
£T0. Postage and packing is included in the price of the

game.

Nothing could be simpler — fill in the form today and

order whatever you like!

ZZAP! 64 MAIL ORDER FORM

Telephone Ludlow (0584) 5620.

Please send me the following titles: Block capitals please!

Producer

All prices are as quoted under review
headings or known retail prices and include
VAT. ZzAP! 64 makes no charge for post or packing
inside the UK. Customers in Europe should add
the equivalent of 70p per item. Outside Europe:
write first so that we may advise on postage rates.

Please make cheques
or postal orders
payable to ZZAP! 64

Sub Total: £
Less Discount £

Total Enclosed: £

Name

Subscriber No.
if applicable

Address.

Postcode

SPECIAL DISCOUNTS

OFF ANY ORDER WORTH
MORE THAN £20

OFF ANY ORDER WORTH
MORE THAN £10

Sorry — only ONE voucher per order !

ZZAP! 64 MAIL ORDER, PO BOX 10, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE SY8 1DB

Please do not send any mail order correspondence to the Zzap! 64 editorial address as this will only result in delays.

KORONIS

You're a

hoping to strike it rkh. Nothing ,

KoronURMt

ACTIVISION

HOME COMPUTER SOFTWARE

ACTIVISION PRESENTS
2 GREAT TITUS FROM
LUCASFILM GAMES.

• Activision Home Computer Software 1 *' is a registered trademark of Activision. Inc.
lucasfilm Games, Ballblazer, Koroms Rift. The Eidolon, and all elements of the game fantasies:

Ballblazer' M available on Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64/128 cassette and disk. Atari cassette and disk

Koroms Rift™ available on Commodore 64/128 cassette and disk, Atari disk.

From selected branches of Boots, WH Smith, John Menzies, Lasky's, Spectrum,

Greens, Woolworth, Littlewoods and good computer software stores everywhere.

Mail order: Activision (UK) Ltd., 15 Harley House, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HE Tel: 01-935 1428

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flower until you have
established what is in the
immediate vicinity, as it can
prove a useful indication.

When found, Ent will give
you a weapon in exchange
for three bags of gold. For
the first three bags you
receive a sword, for the next
three a bow and for every
three bags thereafter you are
given an arrow. However,
when you have received
three arrows that's it — Ent
won't give you anything
else.

THE HERMIT. Stay in front of
the Hermit's hut until he

guards, you will be thrown
into his dungeons. He isn't
interested in anything you
are carrying, so there is no
way of escaping.

THE CASTLE WALL. Keep
going up, left, up, right, frorr
the Hermit's hut until you
come to the wall. Run to the
far right of the wall where
you will see a small stone
with an arrow pointing right.
Unfortunatelyyoucan'tgoin
this direction, as there is a
hedge blocking the way. And
to think the castle entrance is
only on the other side .

RACING

DESTRUCTION SET
(Ariolasoft)

Some, er, tips and a
desperate plea from Julian
Bryant of Reading, Berks.
Ariolasoft please take note . .

1. Buy game.

2. Rush home and switch on

computer, television/

monitor.

3. Put cassette in cassette
deck.

4. Press SHIFT and RUN/
STOP.

5. Press play on tape.

29. Wait. Wait. Wait.

30. Play game. Great, but
was it worth it?

And that's without changing
gravity, players etc!

Come on Ariolasoft, it's a
great game, but it takes so
long to load I will hardly ever
play it — the whole process
takes well over 20 minutes.

Point made Julian, but is it
taken?

RAM BO (Ocean) \

Martin Jenkins of Smarden,
Kent bought a copy of
Ram bo on Saturday the 23rd
of November and loaded it
up to find a brilliant game'.
Hmm, can't say I agree with
you there Martin, but then
you're entitled to your
opinion. Still, he did supply
some useful hints .

Go straight up from the start,
knives or standard arrows at
the ready, until you reach the
secret temple. Here you will
find a machine gun — take it,
but do not use it. Right, now
to rescue Banks . . . Martin
suggests running up the
right hand side of the
compound and blasting a
hole through the fence to
gain entry, or alternatively,
running up the left hand side
of the compound and
coming in from the top.
Unfortunately both methods
are rather dangerous — I find
it best to run up the right
hand side, as opposed to the
left, and enterthe compound
from the top. It doesn't really
matter which way you go, so
long as you make it
reasonably intact. If, and
when, you reach Banks, cut

6. Wait.

7. When music plays, press
fire.

8. Wait.

9. Wait.

10. When menu appears,
select 'change/modify red
vehicle' option.

1 1 . Put second cassette in
deck and press play.

12. Wait.

13. Wait.

14. Fall asleep. Wake up 5
minutes later.

15. Wait.

1 6. Change vehicle and press
fire.

17. Wait.

18. Select 'change/modify
yellow vehicle' option.

19. Wait.

20. Wait.

21. Wait.

22. Change vehicle and press
fire.

23. Wait.

24. Select 'select track'
option.

25. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

26. Select 'start race' option.

27. Wait. Wait.

28. Watch computer check
track (very boring)

appears on screen and your
energy will be restored.

THE FAT BISHOP. If you

ROBIN OF THE
WOOD (Odin)

Thanks go to Ch ris Whyatt of
Wrotham, Kent whose tips
were used to produce the
following .

ENT. There are a number of
different places to find Ent. If
you see a flower next to an
opening leading straight
down, then chances are Ent
will be in the adjacent
location. It could also be the
Hermit's hut. Don't take the

should meet this porky
person on your travels, kill
his body guards and he will
run away, leaving two bags
of gold for the taking.

THE WOMAN IN THE
WOODS. This delectable
female transports you to
another location if you run
into her. Where? It depends
on the quantity and type of
flowers you are carrying.
THE KING. Beware — if you
meet the King and his

Yes, it's that time of the month again ... I trust you all had a
good Christmas? Lots of great new games? Good. Well,
here's a nice little New Years prezzy from me to you — some
new tips to go with your software. There's the second part of
the very jolly UndenA/ur/de map (in fact just to be pedantic,
it's the last part) along with a handy Dynamite Dan map. OK
— they're all yours . . .

SOME TIPS . . .

HOP IF Y

SELECTED PIECE
it I HTEPSECTIOH

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 55

him free with the knife. Now
switch to explosive arrows
and blast your way North to
the awaiting helicopter and
freedom . . .

Well, not quite — you still
have to go back to the
compound and rescue the
other prisoners before you
can escape. Fly the
helicopter straight down
until you see a landing pad —
be quick, as your fuel is low.
As soon as you land, get out
your knife and make your
way over to the prison block
in the bottom left hand side
of the compound. Stand in
front of the hut and wait for
the prisoners to pile out,
before running back to the
helicopter, killing everything
in your path (such a nice
game).

Finally, fly North towards
the base with your rockets
activated. If a gunship
appears, slow down and
allow it to pass in front of you
so it can be shot a few times.
Shoot the gunship enough
times and it will turn tail and
zip off screen, leaving you to
fly on peacefully . . . Until
another appears. If so, give it
the same treatment as the

previous gunship.

When you reach the base,
the game ends and you are
sent on another mission —
and that's about all there is to
it. I'm afraid — wow .

BLACKWYCHE

(Ultimate)

Apologies for not printing
the complete solution last
month, something cropped
up and — well, you know
how it is, I kinda . . . forgot.
But I remembered this
month! So here we go . . .

Ah, one small problem —
I've lost the bits of paper
with the solution on. Fudge.
Never mind, maybe next
month, eh?

A FEW POKES . . .

ROCKET ROGER (Alligata)

Simply load the game, reset
the computer and enter the
following . . .

FOR A=7680 TO 7720: POKE
A, 255:NEXT (RETURN)

SYS 5600 (RETURN) to start
the game.

This gets rid of all nasties
except for the Zone Chaser.
Thank you Jonathan
Ainsworth of Blacko, Lancs.

STAFF OF KARIMATH
[Ultimate)

In response to the plea for
POKEs for Ultimate's crusty
'classic', Reza Tootoochian
of Finchley Central, London
sent in this routine. Firstly,
type in this listing . . .

DYNAMITE DAN MAP

56 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

<r~i

10 T=0:FOR A=20000 TO
20037 : READ B: POKE
A,B:T=T+B:NEXT
20 FOR A=2742 TO
2759:READ BrPOKE A,B:T
=T+B:NEXT:IFT<>6363

THEN PRINT "ERROR":END
30 DATA 169, 43, 141, 40, 3,
169, 78,141,41,3, 96,169,
192,141,62, 3,169,255,141,
64, 3, 76

40 DATA 237, 246, 120, 162,

15,189, 26,192,157, 26, 3,
202, ,208, 247, 88, 96
50 DATA 169, 141, 141, 245,
8,169, 6,141,246, 8,169, 22,
141,247, 8, 76, 5,8

If you are sure you've
entered everything correctly
type RUN (RETURN). If you
did something wrong
however, an ERROR
message will appear, so
check over what you've
done and make any
necessary alterations. Right,
if everything's OK, type SYS
20000 (RETURN). Now press
SHIFT and RUN/STOP and
then, making sure the tape is
rewound to the beginning,
'press play on tape' to load
the first part of the game.
When the opportunity
arises, enter these POKEs:
POKE 1005,182 (RETURN)
POKE 1006,10 (RETURN)
and type SYS 20024

(RETURN) to load the rest of
the game.

Infinite energy will be at
your disposal once the
program has finished
loading and run.

BLACKWYCHE (Ultimate)

Another infinite energy
routine sent in by Reza. Type
in this listing:

10 SYS 63278: POKE
830,100:POKE 831,174:

POKE 832,102:SYS 62828
20 FOR A=679 TO 767: POKE
A,PEEK (25088+A):NEXT
30 FOR A=828 TO 1200:
POKE A, PEEK (25088+ A):
NEXT

40 POKE 990,141 :POKE
99 1 ,74: POKE 992, 1 8 : SYS
1024

Check you have entered the
above correctly and if so
e RUN (RETURN) to load

typ

the

game.

Vi^NM (^Ts NSI NxixinKT N\N\NNJ\MV1
^NNNNNrNNNI\Ki\IXiM <KN^

3 P3E3 PJJR P -JU1-J.J.1-UH

3 E55F3 I — F '- o-M h+JUj- 1

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 57

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THANK YOU! However, I must point out that I don t have
time to reply personally to any letters, so please, no more

Right, that's it for another month. Remember, send all
our tips, cheats, hints and otherwise into : PLAYING TIPS,

U • J - J*

SY8 1DB.

PLEASE NOTE — it's terribly important you put ZZAP!
MAGAZINE in the address, otherwise the poor post sorting
people get into a twist!

60 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

P6N N"'

for infinite men
POKE 38454,96 (RETURN)
stops money decreasing
There is one small problem
— Reza neglected to
mention how to restart the
game . . .

ELIDON (Orpheus)

A useful POKE from M atthew
Williams of Wanstead,
London. Reset the machine
and type:

POKE 281 1,173 (RETURN)
SYS 2304 (RETURN) to start
the game with infinite lives.

Ah, while we're on the
subject of POKEs, there is,
um, that is, was, a small
error last month. You know
those Rockford's Riot POKEs

able to try out the following
tip, supplied by Steve Carr
and John Simmonds of
Eastbourne, East Sussex, to
see if it really does work.
Never mind. I'll take their
word for it . . . When your SC
has nearly run out, go to the
bottom until it runs out
completely. Then move the
hover board up the ramp and
you will reappear. Not much,
I know, but every little bit
counts.

printed last month? Well
you've probably noticed
there were some values
missing. You did? Oh, sorry
about that — must have
been something in the
coffee . . .

Anyway, these are the
different values for you to
POKE:

0 — space

1 — soil

2 — 'brick' wall

3 — steel wall
10 — fireflies
1 8 — rock

20 — diamonds
28 — explosion
33 — diamond explosion
37 — Rockford!

51 — butterfly
59 — amoeba

AND A MINI TIP OR
TWO...

RUPERT AND THE
TOYMAKERS PARTY
(Quicksiiva)

A lot of people have written
in with this tip, but I can
never get it to work. Still, I
might as well tell you that if
you press the up arrow key,
you advance to the next
screen. Simple, but
ineffective.

PSI WARRIOR (Beyond)

haven't been

Unfortunately I

NODES OF YESOD (Odin)

Try resetting the computer
after the game has loaded
for an amusing message . . .

CRAZY COMETS (Martech)

Stuart Lloyd of Aughton,
Lancashire sent in a cheat for
Crazy Comets and so did Tim
Peggs of Scarborough,

North Yorkshire. Both say
roughly the same thing:
select 2 player mode before
starting the game. Player
one must get an extra life
without losing one, and then
lose those remaining to
leave player two with one
life. Hmm, I think I worded
that somewhat awkwardly,
but never mind. Anyway,
Stuart reckons the game will
never end if you follow the
abotre procedure, whereas
Timbo thinks that every time
a planet is shot, player 2
gains an extra life. I think
otherwise, as I couldn't
either method to work. Still,

I may well have been doing
something wrona . . .

Steve Packer of
Chelmsford, Essex also has a
tip for Crazy Comets , but it
actually works — or rather, it
worked for me, so that's
good enough. When a planet
appears with another in
orbit, shoot it until it glows,
but still moves at the same
speed. The small, orbiting
satellite will now start to
chase you — do not despair
my friend, for it cannot harm
you. Shoot it for as Iona as
possible, avoiding the large
planet, and watcn thepoints
mount up. After a while the
satellite slows down,
making it easier to shoot.

STEALTH (Arf ola soft)

Load the game and reset the
computer before entering
any of these POKEs, also
sent in by Reza.

POKE 30298,number of lives
(RETURN)

POKE 30590,173 (RETURN)

for infinite lives

POKE 28512, 132 (RETURN)

for infinite energy

OR: POKE 28341,169
(RETURN)

POKE 28342,0 (RETURN)
POKE 28343,234 (RETURN)
To ignore any collisions.
Enter SYS 53055 (RETURN)

to start the game.

GHOSTBUSTERS

(Activision)

Load up the game, reset the
computer and enter some of
these POKEs which Reza
sent in . . .

POKE 34777,169 (RETURN)

for infinite traps
POKE 34446,234: POKE
34447,234 (RETURN) for
infinite energy
POKE 34351,153 (RETURN)
this stops any backpack
energy loss after crossing
the streams

POKE 29164,169 (RETURN)
POKE 26165, 3 (RETURN)
POKE 32425,169 (RETURN)

I .<s»

From time to time a software title is released, so innovative that it breaks new ground in
graphical and technical achievement — Fight Night, the first animated simulation on the
C64 is more than a game, more than a simulation — it is a revelation!

“It has class, it has style — forget the rest, Fight Night is quite simply the absolute best.
— Tony Takoushi Computer & Video Games/Computer Trade Weekly.

“It’s like watching and playing a cartoon computer version of Rocky. Fight Night has
pushed the graphical capabilities of the C64 to its utmost limits ” — Zzap 64 November.

Sydney

Development i^Corp

Available for
Commodore 64

Cassette £ 9.95
Disk £ 14.95

mi Power to the
People's artists on
mhm Compunet I

Sitting innocently at record number
1700 on the Compunet system is a
section much used and loved by a
majority of CNET subscribers. Run by
Tony Crowther (ARC86), The Art
Gallery is an area specially set aside for
budding artists of all levels of talent to
display their creations. Usually peo-
ple's offerings appear in two different
forms, either text or program. Text is a
screen created using the graphics char-
acters on the front of the 64's keyboard.
Though this medium may seem limit-
ing, results gleaned from hours of
midnight pounding using the modem
editor can prove quite astounding —
unlike the content of the World's Worst
Art section, most of which is so bad, it's
brilliant!

More of that next month.

Program format allows masters of
the pixelled medium to UPLD pieces
created on various art packages. Usual-
ly in multi-coloured bit map mode,
quite a lot of the entries in this directory
are easily of professional quality.

For frames par excellence there is the
Hall of Fame containing, in order of
author, the most impressive and aes-
thetic UPLDs to appear on the net. One
of the most noted of electronic artists is
Bob Stevenson (RS4), an 18 year old
from Fife whose work has received
much acclaim. Probably most noted of
his works is Max Headroom, drawn in
Hi Res and actually animated convinc-
ingly. Now in development is Head-
room II, a five frame animation of Max.

Organiser of Art Gallery, Tony
Crowther, also puts up the odd Dicture

or two. Mostly album covers, Tony
seems to enjoy recreating Meatloaf
album covers. 2000AD also has quite a
following as well, with pictures of
Dredd, Strontium Dog and various
other characters populating the
gallery.

Having artwork in the Art Gallery is
quite a good idea. Stuart Jackson
(SJ3) was asked by Virgin to supply a
loading screen for their new Dan Dare
game. There are several sub-sections
for your creations. Album Covers and
Comic Strips are both sections that
receive a notable amount of UPLDs, all
of a very high quality indeed.

As time goes on, we'll be featuring
the best entrants to our very own art
competition in the Zap Club. From now
on the best upload each month will be
awarded twenty pounds worth of soft-
ware and a display of their work in
ZZAP! Instead of me rattling on it's best
to let the pictures speak for themselves.
However, as they can't actually talk,
you know, in the usual sense, at great
expense, we've managed to drag
noted art critic Brigitte Van Reuben
away from her favourite historical
research project — The Hidden Zen
Philosophies of mid-sixties Op Art —
and invited her to appraise the various
works for ZZAP! 64. Take it away Miss
Van Reuben —

KILLER DRIVE

The employment of colour
in this work is of paramount
importance. A first glance
reveals very little colour in
fact, and herein lies the ful-
crum of the artist's angst of
life. It might be regarded as
cliche to attack a 1541 disk
drive (we can see the obv-
ious here — the chewed
disk, the ferocious teeth on
the mouth of the drive and
the devil's horns on top), but
behind the surface imagery
there are more subtle indica-
tions of the artist's true in-
tentions. The harmony of
blue-greys and shaded tones
imply a restfulness that is
wholly at odds with the
jagged structures — a schiz-
ophrenic split that suggests
so accurately the way life
can rear up and attack when
it is least expected.

It is this sense of the abyss
beneath the everyday that
gives Bob Stevenson's Killer
Drive its powerful impact.
We look at the 1541 and we
are simply terrified.

62 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

MAX HEADROOM

Is it art that follows on from
life, or life that copies art? In
the face of personalities like
Max Headroom the question
seems pointless, for where
does the thin line between
art and reality lie? Do we
ever question the existence
of a figure on television?
Does it matter whether that
figure be a photographic
representation of a real per-
son or a real reproduction of
a fantasy character? For the
onlooker. Max exists. It sure-
ly could not be long before a
computer artist would turn
his electronic eye on a char-
acter conceived in a com-
puter. Bob Stevenson's
work, however, has avoided
mere representation, neatly
capturing that sense of
menace that the animated
Headroom avoids by sheer
movement. We may feel the
sinister quality of Max, but in
this work it shouts from the
canvas like a still of a smiling
politician caught off guard
between soliloquies and re-
vealing the greed beneath.
Orwell had always thought
of Big Brother as an adver-
tising campaign, Stevenson
shows us in all too frigh-
tening detail that an adver-
tising campaign can be Big
Brother and that the enemy
of the people in future may
well be fed on chips.

intKSi

THE GRONK

The flat toned colour and
pop outlines of Patrick Caul-
field immediately come to
mind on first seeing Stuart
Jackson's Gronk, another
folk hero from the comic
2000AD. Caulfield was a
man before his time, with his
cerebral images of everyday
life viewed in purposefully
flattened out areas of colour,
bound by even black lines —
he could almost have been
inventing computer graphics
art before it arrived. To
present this work in a str-
onger vein than it would
otherwise appear, the artist
has carefully chosen the
expression on the Cronk's
face to cajole us into be-
lieving him fierce. It's this
feeling of danger' wrapped
up in what might be called
'cuddly' clothes, that gives
the work its tremendous
power, reminding us yet
again that nothing is ever as
it seems and under every
habbit there may be big teeth
ready to maul.

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 63

■

iiffuinwi W. "w 1

- .

HEROIN, WASTED
YOUTH

Like Killer Drive, this work
uses the muted tones of a
crepuscular world , but un-
like the former picture, the
angst at life is on the surface,
in the harrowing form of the
slumped figure. Colour, the
red of blood, is used as a
slash across the even-toned
surface of the image, reflec-
ted again in the title. But
there is a vital dichotomy
contained within, for the
expression on the face of the
'victim' is not one of apathy
or despair at his situation,
but one of anger, a barely'
suppressed violence felt for
the world that has made him
what he has become. And
the very title itself alerts us to
the artist's inner meaning, for
we may all be the 'hero in'
Wasted Youth.

RAMBO

Stevenson's portraits are less
an attempt to capture the
'feel' of a person, he's at
home with the fictional as he
is with the real — and in any
case, the personna of Jimi
Hendrix was the fiction of
the pop culture hype. With
Rambo, the pixilated paint
structure is put to important
use to show the essential
disintegration of the Holly-
wood folk hero in its eternal
confrontation with the real
world. Rambo may be a
realistic character in as
much as he is portrayed by a
real person, but there is no
accident in the framing of
this phallic figure, with its
potent weapon breaking
energetically out of the
border — it recalls instantly
the comic strip box. We are
thus made aware that intrin-
sically Rambo is an unreal
hero, unable to exist outside
of the framework that the
artist has imposed — his
cerebral exo-skeleton that
we might otherwise mistake
for the true American
Dream.

64 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

JIMI HENDRIX

When he turns to portraiture ,
Bob Stevenson's central
concern with the nature
beneath the surface is not
lost. Hendrix is seen in
uncompromising close up, a
'warts and all' representation
in the style of the Durer
school. The subject looks not
at us, but stares outward — a
dreamer's vision in a purple
haze, eyes and mind fixed
along the watchtower on a
future none of us are privi-
leged to see. The eyes are all,
with the V of the mouth and
the powerful verticals of the
nose leading inexorably to
the eyes which, while they
hold hope, also see despair
and as nothing else could
do, tell us the future is bleak
indeed. The restricted pal
ette of colours allows the red
of the lips to sing from the
canvas, and the busy brush-
work in the facial detail is set
off against a broad, flat ex-
panse of electric blue, add-
ing a vibrancy to the portrait
that reflects the tortured life
of the subject.

JUDGE DREDD

The comic strip image has
long held sway in art terms.
Sometimes such presenta-
tion can seem cheap, like
mere copying, but the artist's
function is to strip away the
trite and reveal the inner
structure of our obsessions.

In the tradition of Lichten-
stein's Wham!, Judge Dredd
is less concerned with the
sub-cult hero's image as
purveyed by comic strip art-
ists, but rather plays with .
comic strip conventions — N :
the crude but vigorous black
'ink' lines, the strong, flat
primary colours, and
reminds us that abstract con-
ceptualisation of physiog-
nomy can convince us of
reality; no one actually looks
like this, yet we are made
aware of what the face
stands for — the uncom-
promising justice of the
frontier brought to our urban
streets. This masterly picture
in a single image makes a
precis of the cult, summing
up its philosophy endur-
ingly.

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 65

"flan bit PReromons..

JOIN THE

COMMUNICATIONS

REVOLUTION

A Mega-special ZZAPI Offer
Exclusive to Our Readers!!

A COMMODORE
MODEM

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ZZAP! 64— POSTED
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WHAT THE COMMODORE MODEM OFFERS "

The Commodore Modem is a gateway to the exciting world of 1200/75 Baud Communications. Explore
famous databases like Prestel and Micronet, using software available free on Compunet. Communicate
with others nationwide at local call rates using u£er~to-user software — free on Compunet. Log on to

scores of private Bulletin Boards.

WHAT YOU'LL GET OUT OF COMPUNET

Your very own private electronic mail facility - FREEH ! Scores of free programs — - Hi Res graphics/

music, games demos, utilities. All available for you down your telephone line.

Tips and hints, chat and gossip, scores of mini bulletin boards. Over 50 free educational programs to

help with exams.

All this and much more for you to browse through as you choose for up to six hours in each three month

period.

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clubhouse, special offers . . . everything you want to keep up to date with the games scene.

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* Screens from Commodore 64
version of game

COMPUTER SOf TWARE

The Gates of Apshai
loom before you.

Many adventurers
have stood here and
pondered their fate.
Will you plunder the
grand treasures of the
Apshai priests? And
live to learn the secret
of the Sphinx? Did
the wily Innkeeper
wheedle his profit front
your meagre purse?
Or do you go forth
equipped with the
finest swords and
armour leaving him
muttering oaths and
swearing you stole the
food from the mouths
of his babies?

Once inside the
Temple you know why
the Legends of Apshai

speak of Magic. You
will need more than a
character of strength
and intelligence and
the keen nose of intui-
tion to overcome the
evil and power of the
Curse of Ra. The
monsters roam about
— Zombies, Ghouls
and the terrifying
minions of Apshai the
Insect God. Giant
mosquitos, wasps,
ants and beetles
suddenly attack, biting
and clawing. This my
friend is adventure —
classic adventure from
the Dunjon Masters at
Epyx. Welcome to the
Temple of Apshai
Trilogy... you're just in
time for lunch!

► I he ( omplete Temple of Apshai Trilogy: Temple of Apshai
The Upper Reaches of Apshai and The C urse of Ha.

► 12 Levels, 568 Rooms With 37 Terrifying Monsters!

N ► New Graphics, enhanced Sounds, faster Play! ► One Player.

► Classic Cast of C haracters - The Inn keeper. The Dwarf, The Magic User and

The Cleric and more!

Vbu>THINKHfi>8fe

A complete monthly guide by the infamous White Wizard

for all 64 owners who prefer games involving typed commands
rather than wiggled joysticks.

No! It's too much! I just can't cope with Christmas ,
Info com, and Level 9 blockbusters all at once! Sleepless
nights, deterioration of health, and sudden death await
any adventurer who gets to grips with the games featured
on these pages . What little strength the White Wizard had
left has been spent putting together these pages of dire
warning . . . Wishbringer, Worm in Paradise,
Lord of the Rings preview, and a Wild West shoot-out
- avoid them like the plague! You have been warned!

WISHBRINGER

Infocom, £36. 16, disk only

his is the latest
offering from the
Infocom label
and, like all their
other games, is
disk-only.

Where it differs
from previous
Infocom relea
ses, however, is in the level of
play. Wishbringer is aimed fairly
and squarely at the inexperienced
adventurer.

That's not to say, however, that
veteran Wizards won't get a few
thrills out of it. OT Whitey has
been at it for a few nights now,
and I'm afraid the bad news is that
here is another expensive Infocom
game that I've just GOT to have in

my collection!

Wishbringer puts you in the role
of a young postman in the sleepy
seaside town of Festeron. Deliver-
ing a letter to the proprietress of
the local Magicke Shoppe, you
find yourself drawn into another
dimension of magic and evil as
you endeavour to rescue her cat
from the Evil One. To aid you in
your quest, you have the Stone of
Dreams which enables you to cast
seven spells in your defence.

The spells are for rain, advice,
flight, darkness, foresight, luck,
and freedom from imprisonment.
Most can only be used once, and
all require that certain other con-
ditions be met before they will
work. For example, you can only

cast the foresight spell if you're
wearing glasses.

Interesting features of the pro-
gram include a number of aids to
the novice adventurer. For exam-
ple, the program begins by flash-
ing up What now? before each
input prompt. After a while, the
What now? prompt is omitted,
and the program flashes up a little
message to say that you won't be
seeing it from then on, since it's
assumed that you know when to
enter commands.

Similarly, certain location des-
criptions are worded in such a way
as to prompt the player to make
the correct decisions. Locations
that it is wise to enter are described
as having doors that are 'inviting-
ly' open, and so on. You might
think that this would give the
game away, but you needn't
worry — the puzzles are still just as
logical and, in one or two cases,
just as tricky as other Infocom
adventures.

The trouble with Wishbringer
(and with all recent Infocom
games) is that there isn't much I
can say about it! I can't tell you
about the vocabulary problems,
because there aren't any. I can't
tell you what sort of inputs it will
accept, because I'd run out of
space. I can't tell you the plot
because it would spoil the fun, and

besides, the text is so richly
written that to try and condense it
into a review would be
meaningless.

As an example of interaction
within the game, try this. You
encounter a very unpleasant little
poodle on your travels, and gett-
ing past it can be quite a problem.
After the White Wizard had had
his ego thoroughly damaged by
the little monster, he typed 'Kick
the poodle' in desperation. 'Are
you kidding!?' replied the pro-
gram, 'This poodle is MEAN!' And
that's just one example of a whole
host of responses that really lift
this (and other Infocom games)
into the league of all-time classics.

Wishbringer is yet another exa-
mple of brilliant design and pro-
gramming. It makes one wonder
whether British companies, used
to cassette-based games for so
long, will ever catch up when we
all move over to using disks. It's
pricey, but even so it's still recom-
mended to all in search of mystery
and imagination.

Atmosphere 95%
Interaction 95%
Lasting Interest 88%
Value For Money 77%
Overall 85%

68 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

MASQUERADE

US Gold , £14.95 disk only

his is another of
those disk-based
American adve-
ntures that looks
great but falls
down badly
when it comes to
programming.
You start off in a
hotel room, gazing down on a
dead body which belonged to a
hired assassin by the name of Ivan
Tupickemoff. Beneath his body
you will, in your role as a sharp-
eyed detective, also notice the

infamous Commodore split screen
glitch, which flickers annoyingly
as you try to read the skimpy text
below.

The format of this game is very
similar to Mindshadow , but
whereas Mindshadow had some
powerful and unusual commands.
Masquerade relies on two -word
inputs and a small vocabulary.
What's more, it doesn't give you
much help if you run into linguis-
tic problems — enter 'Zxxrtw', for
example, and it says happily 'I
can't do that right now!' I'm not

surprised.

As you explore your hotel, you
discover a time-bomb in a phone
booth, set to go off at 6.15pm.
Since your watch says 5.20 or
thereabouts, that gives you just
about enough time to rush out
into the street, get stabbed a few
times, visit the zoo, and indulge in
various verb-noun encounters
with attendants and sinister
figures. There's no doubt that the
graphics are veiy good, but if
you've got a disk-drive you've
probably played a game like the
disk Hobbit, or perhaps even an
Infocom game, and you'll be ex-
pecting more for your money than

the simple set-up you get here.

Perhaps I shouldn't be too hard
on Masquerade — it does LOOK
good, after all. And there is a
certain atmosphere about it,
mainly induced by the thought of
being blown up at 6.15, but a
masterpiece of programming it
ain't.

Atmosphere 60%
Interaction 45%
Lasting Interest 58%
Value for Money 51%
Overall 59%

FELLOWSHIP OF
THE RINGS

An early look at Melbourne House's new blockbuster

* . MA

elboume House
are now on the
verge of releas-
ing their long-
(| awaited mega-
game. Lord of the
Rings. The game
is in the form of a
trilogy, and the
first part ( Fellowship of the Ring) has
already appeared on a certain
home computer that I shall not
mention here.

Just to keep you on your toes.

here are some hints as to what to
expect when we review it in full
next month. The White Wizard
has been swallowing his pride and
playing the Spectrum version, and
although we all know that the
Commodore version will be far
superior, I can reveal some inter-
esting facets of the game . . .

First, you can choose to play the
role of one of four hobbits, Frodo,
Sam, Pippin, and Merry. Frodo
carries the Ring, and for the ben-
efit of those who don't know the
story, the ultimate objective is to
destroy this evil token by hurling
it into the depths of Orodruin the
Fire Mountain, deep in the dark

land of Mordor.

At the beginning of the game
you get the chance to choose
which of the hobbits you wish to
control. You can choose more
than one and from then on you
can play the game using that
character by typing 'BECOME
PIPPIN' or whatever. The charac-
ters you are not controlling dir-
ectly are controlled by the com-
puter — and believe me, it keeps
them busy! Unfortunately (on the
Spectrum, at any rate) this means
that the old CPU has really got its
time cut out, and as a result the
pace of the game is very slow —
almost unacceptably so at times.
Let's hope the 64 version is much
improved in this respect at least.

The format of the display is
unusual and very effective. The
display is arranged rather like an
open book, with a page laid flat

across most of the screen, on
which graphics come and go and
across which the text scrolls as you
move around and enter comm-
ands. The faces of the four hobbits
appear down the edge of the page
if they are present in the same
location as yourself — otherwise
they appear down the extreme
edge of the screen, as if they were
printed on earlier pages that have
already been overlaid. Unfortun-
ately time delays occur here as
well — every time a hobbit enters
your location its image must be
erased and redrawn — all rather
tedious.

The best thing about the game,
however, is the expanded version
of English — the name Melbourne
House give to their input system. It
is certainly streets ahead of the
Hobbit, and considerably more
reliable and easier to use than
Sherlock. I reckon that it's getting
very close to Infocom standard
and is certainly most impressive
for a cassette-based game.

The White Wizard will give you
a full-blown account of this major
release in next month's issue.
Until then, remember to brush the
hair between your toes!

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 69

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GREMLIN GRAPHICS

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marvellous tracksuit for

ONLY £16.95

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The Monty on the Run tracksuit is made from high
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Don't miss out on this amazing offer, send off the

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SY81DB

70 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

CAUSES OF CHAOS

CRL, £8. 95 cass

he White Wizard
took a quick look
at this game last
month, and I've
now had time to
play it rather
more thorough-
ly. The news. I'm
afraid, is not all

that good.

The trouble with multi-player
games is that a lot of effort tends to
be put into the mechanics of role-
sharing and not enough into the
actual game itself. Causes of Chaos
suffers particularly in this way —
you can have up to six players, but
the game is hardly enough to
sustain the attention of one per-
son, let alone all six.

Readers who caught last
month's column will know that
the the aim of the game is to
recover six treasures from the evil
Count Vladimir and restore them
to their rightful owner. King
Arnid, whose power depends on
them. Unfortunately the scope of
the game is somewhat limited
because of the inadequate parser.
Typical responses are 'You can't
see it from here,' which occurs
frequently and quite independen-
tly of the location descriptions.
This means that, if you're told
you're standing by a cliff, entering
'Examine cliff' will, likely as not,
result in your being told you can't

see it.

Other oddities include getting
the response 'You can't while
you're carrying it' following the
input 'Break lock' while trying to
open a door, and the ridiculous
episode where, to look inside a
'small, empty case', you must
enter it! The White Wizard is of
average height and does not think
he should be allowed to enter a
small case without casting some
very tricky spells.

If you can cope with the parser
and can find some other compan-
ions who are equally prepared to
make allowances, then you might
have a few hours of fun with
Causes of Chaos. The combat rou-
tines are pretty basic, and prob-
ably not too healthy for your
keyboard since they involve hit-
ting a key before your opponent,
but they do add some action
which is all too often missing from
adventure games. If you got this
one for Christmas, then don't
complain, but I think you should
think twice before spending hard-
earned cash on it.

Atmosphere 55%
Interaction 50%
Lasting Interest 57%
Value for Money 50%
Overall 53%

WORM IN
PARADISE

Level 9 Computing , £ 9. 95 cass

his game has
been eagerly
awaited for
many different
reasons. First, it's
the final episode
in the Silicon
Dream Trilogy,
which began
way back in 1984 with Snowball.

Secondly, the game not only
rounds off the series, but does so
using Level 9's new adventure
system. You can read about the
new system elsewhere on this
page, but what about the plot?

The instructions aren't that
clear on your objective, except to
say that when you start the game
you don't know who you are or

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what you're up to. In the White
Wizard's case, this ignorance
lasted for several hours! Finding
yourself in the Pleasure Dome of
Enoch, capital city of Eden, you
first wander around checking out
the shops, casino, and other
amusements before moving out
into the city and trying to find
your way around. From the very
moment that you start the game,
you'll find yourself involved with
all sorts of gadgets and gimmicks,
all very well thought out and some
— like the One Armed Bandit in
the Casino — very entertaining.

There's a very complicated sys-
tem of roundabouts and 'ped-
ways' connecting the different city
locations, but luckily they're fairly
easily mapped and after a while
you begin to feel like a native
Edener out on holiday. The biggest
problem is mastering the main
Eden Transport System, which is a
colour coded set-up with over 40
million possible destinations! If

you get really stuck, send for a crib
sheet to Level 9, who've written a
special BASIC program to help
you work out how to get to where
you want to go! I think there's
going to be a huge demand for it!

The society on Eden is pretty
sick — everything's run by robots
for the benefit of humans, which
means that the humans are a
rather spineless lot. The eventual
aim of the game is to work your
way up in society, get a decent job,
and then, when you've reached
the top, set about changing the
world.

While you play, you'll come
across the Fuzbots, who regularly
inspect you and will fine you for
any misdemeanour you may have
committed. You'll also discover
that people on Eden live for ever
(or almost) because they simply
replace their worn-out limbs with
someone else's. If you don't be-
have, you'll find that you'll be
doing most of the supplying! The

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most important thing to do is keep
a check on your expenditure —
being in debt can cost you literally
an arm and a leg!

You'll also — if you're sensible
— get yourself a companion in the
form of a Dagget — an electronic
dog. This battery-driven cutie
spends most the game jumping up
your leg. I suppose it has to make
the most of it — considering the
price of a Dagget, you're unlikely
to have a leg for long after you've •
paid for it!

There are over 220 locations, all

with graphics, and the Wizard
reckons that this game is going to
be responsible for more sleepless
nights than Nescafe, insomnia,
and indigestion put together!
Definitely worth trading-in a limb
for.

Atmosphere 88%
Interaction 85%
Lasting Interest 88%
Value For Money 90%
Overall 90%

BACK NUMBERS

Don't miss out on earlier issues!

ZZAP! 64 has taken off like a blast of lightning! If you
have been unable to obtain copies of issue 1, 2 or 3,
NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!

We keep a limited stock of back numbers to en-

sure your collection is complete, after all, we
wouldn't want any gaps in those ZZAP! binders,
which will be available shortly.

No 1 May 1985
No 2 June 1985
No 3 July 1985
NO 4 August 1985
No 5 September 1985

No 6 October 1985

• Towny Crowther • Staff of Karnath map/solution • Music
Programs • Lords of Midnight map • Elite • Shadowfire

• Theatre Europe • Tir Na Nog map • Everyone's a Wally map •
Game skill test # Us Gold interview

• Dropzone • Entombed map • Airwolf map • Arcade bonanza •
Paradroid diary I • Chess v Chess

• Fourth Protocol/Bcploding Fist/Beach Head 11/ • Shadowfire
map • Denton Designs • Paradroid diary II

• Summer Games ll/Frankie/Skyfox • 64 Surgeries • Paradroid
diary III # Terminal Man starts • Spy v Spy 11/Mercenary previews

• Flying High — simulations

• Pet Person • Wizardry /Nexus previews • Electronic Pencil Co •
Zzapstick! • Paradroid diary IV • Flying High II

No 7 November 1985
No 8 December 1985

• Paradroid Gold Medal# Little Computer People
1 Zzapstick! • Pull out poster • Masterblaster II

• Zoids/Elektraglide previews • Kiddie games
Electrosound Gold Medal • David Crane Interview
Batalyx/Scarbaeus/ACE

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ZZAP! 64 February 1986 71

KKM'Mlp

' '-I*'.**

CBM64/128

The cunning Desert Fox, the wily Rommel, is on the rampage, sweeping
across the desert sands, laying low the allied forces and swarming
through allied territory. It is on your shoulders Lone Wolf, to halt the
rogress of this awesome foe and rescue the North Africa campaign from
his grasp. Step forward with the courage of a fearless leader in face to

face conflict with his ground and air attacks. Be as wise and as cautious as
the most battle hardened general in planning your strategy and calculating
your tactics to rescue your supply depots. In short Lone Wolf, if you fail in
your destiny as the complete warrior, the final conflict — a head to head
tank duel with the mighty Desert Fox himself — will be your last.

REALISTIC VOICE SIMULATION

Listen in on enemy radio messages , plan your tactics to combat their manoeuvres.

U.S. Gold Limited, Unit 10, Parkway Industrial Centre, Heneage Street, Birmingham B7 4LY. Telephone: 021-359 8881

ap: Be wise in your campaign
rategy, protect those depots in
inger from enemy forces, rally
>ur firepower to it's most

Stuka attack: Keep a close eye
on your radar, an early warning
will give you some chance against
the enemy stuka attacks

Convoy: Protect your convoys
from aerial bombardment at all
costs, without their supplies your
depots will fall. But in your
eagerness watch out for the allied
Spitfires.

Ambush:The valley is
infested with enemy forces
but no matter reach the other
side you must. Good luck and
happy shooting.

it w *

dJEESSilk

Aimmi k

►

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 73

LEVEL 9

If Level 9 are going to stay at
the top of the adventure
league, they've got to come
up with something pretty
special — particularly in
these days when more
people are buying disk drives
and getting access to games
like Hitchhikers and Zork. Have
they succeeded?

Things have certainly
come a long way since Snow-
ball. This was a text-only
game that was followed by
Return To Eden , introducing
the pleasures of graphics for
the first time in a Level 9
game. Now there's Worm ,
with a load of new features
that make it the most play-
able Level 9 game yet.

First, you get multi-task-
ing graphics. This means that
you can enter text even
while the pictures are still
drawing. Of course it does
mean that the graphics are
slowed down slightly, but
the big advantage is that you
can move around quickly
without having to turn off
the pictures altogether. And
in this game, believe me,
you'll be doing a lot of
moving around — and not
always in the direction you
want to go, either!

Second, you get a vastly
increased vocabulary. Level
9 are claiming a thousand
words, and on the basis of a
couple of days playing I
won't quibble with that. I
certainly didn't experience
any vocabulary problems on
my trips round planet Eden.

However, the increased
vocabulary is only half the
story. The text-compression
system used in Worm means
that each word (including all
the text of the location des-
criptions) is stored in a large
dictionary. Your inputs are
matched against the diction-
ary and if your input doesn't
make sense, you'll be told
exactly why not.

For example, if you see an
interesting flower which is,
in fact, just there as part of
the scenery, and try to 'Exa-
mine the flower', the pro-

gram will tell you that the
flower is 'just scenery', or
'not important'. In effect,
therefore, the vocabulary is a
lot larger than 1000 words —
in fact, the game will accept
almost any word that it uses
itself. So perhaps it's more
accurate to say that the pro-
gram has a SIGNIFICANT
vocabulary of 1000 words.
That, just for the record, is
better than any other cass-
ette-based game on the
market, and even better
than some of the earlier
Infocom games {Zork, for
example).

Finally, not only does Worm
understand more words, it
also allows you to use them
in many different ways — far
more than in earlier Level 9
games. You can have multi-
ple inputs connected by
AND, THEN, commas, and
full stops. You can use pre-
positions like on and at, and
even use it to refer to a pre-
viously mentioned noun.

There is, however, one not-
able omission from this new
system, and that's 'interac-
tive characters'. You still
can't talk to other characters
in the story, and although
there are other people about
who move around and even
address you from time to
time, there's no provision in
the program for interacting
with them, other than hand-
ing oyer objects or money.
This is a pity, the more so
since other contemporary
games {Lord of the Rings in
particular, and Infocom
games of course) are becom-
ing quite strong in this area.
Level 9 will have to watch
out that they aren't left too
far behind, since characters
can add a lot to a game, even
if they are fairly primitive —
take the Hobbit , for example.

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THE WILD WEST

Ariolasoft, £12.95 disk only

h boy, this one is
weird! You've
heard of icon-
driven adven-
tures ( Fourth
Protocol etc) but
this really takes
the cake. Instead
of entering co
mmands, you select one of three
rather dumb looking sprites who
lurk at the bottom of the screen.
Each sprite has a word of advice to
give you, which you can either
take by pressing the fire button or
else ignore in favour of one of the
others.

You start off in the desert and
must recapture Fort Snake from
Big Nose Bill and his merry men.
On the way you encounter Ind-

ians (many of whom are distinctly
unfriendly), rattle snakes, and
snakes of the two-legged variety
as well. In fact there don't seem to
be many people around you can
trust — least of all the sprites at the
bottom of the screen who keep
saying things like Teach him a
lesson!' when you come across an
Indian. Needless to say, teaching
Indians usually results in sudden
death.

The best thing about Wild West is
the display. The graphics are very
colourful and in some cases can
suddenly come to life to bring you
short animated sequences that
show the results (usually fatal) of
taking the wrong advice. Trying to
climb a high wall at nightfall, for
example, will soon result in your

falling down and killing yourself
in the story and on the screen.

One thing about this game that
appealed to the White Wizard was
how often the sprites encouraged
you to Take a rest'. Usually the
last thing to do in an adventure is
hang around and do nothing, but I
soon discovered that many of the
more important things in the
game will only become apparent if
you do occasionally take time off
for a quick nap.

The game is split into three
modules. The White Wizard got
rather confused here. When you
finish a module, you're given a
password which enables you to
play the next part. However, you
can in fact enter ANY sequence of
letters and still play the module,
though it seems that things don't
happen quite the way they should
unless you've actually completed
the previous episode and been
given a valid password. The first
module contains some excellent
shooting sequences. The second is

mostly concerned with dealing
with Indians. The third phase puts
you down by Fort Snake and
complicates things considerably
by making each sprite give differ-
ent advice if you ask it more than
once — so you have to choose the
right sprite AND the right advice.
Help!

Wild West is a lively game —
ou'll need a pen and paper to
eep a track of the options you've
selected so that, by a process of
trial and elimination, you can
make progress in the game. The
White Wizard reckons that this
game will be particularly enjoyed
by younger players — older and
more experienced adventurers
might find it a bit twee. Still, it's
nice to see some new ideas here in
Adventureland.

Atmosphere 62%
Interaction 65%

Lasting Interest 68%
Value for Money 60%
Overall 65%

RUNESTONE

Firebird are having trouble with
the Commodore version of Rune-
stone. This Lords of Midnight type
game first saw the light of day in
advertisements over a year ago.
Now we're promised it for the
next issue. The White Wizard has
already played a pre- release ver-
sion, and it looks pretty hot, so
keep your fingers crossed.

The big advantage it has over
LoM is the parser — you can talk to
people, and enter some quite com-
plex commands. The characters
are also very well programmed
with quite convincing and differ-
ing personalities. Looks like being
quite a hit for Firebird's new Hot
range when they finally get it out.
All yours for £7.95 on cassette,
£9.95 on disk.

QUESTPROBE HI —
THE FANTASTIC
FOUR

This is Adventure International's
latest Scott Adams mega-blaster,
and they're getting very excited
about it. According to Mike
Woodroffe of AI, the action table
in the program has over 1300
entries in it. The White Wizard
hasn't the faintest idea what this

really means, but when you com-
bine it with full-sentence input
and other improvements to the
parser it begins to sound quite
exciting. You'll also be able to
control more than one character
in the game, as in Magician 's Ball.

Meanwhile, have you ever
wondered why AI games ignore
half your inputs? Apparently the
parsers were designed to make the
games easily translatable into
other languages. Unfortunately,
other languages tend to mix up the
order of verbs and nouns, and the
only way AI could get round it was
to alter the parser — hence the odd
side-effects. Stand by for Robin Von
Sherwood and Le Hulk.

NEW MOON FROM
LEVEL 9

Level 9 are hard at work on the
sequel to Red Moon , entitled the
Price of Magic, or simply Red Moon 2.
After his dallying with science-
fiction on the planet,, of Eden,
game-designer Pete Austin is
keen to get back to magic, dragons,
and troll bashing — who can
blame him? The bad news is that
we'll have to wait until March to
see what he's come up with.

Meanwhile the White Wizard
can give you a gentle hint about
things to come from Level 9.
You've heard of (and may have
played) MUD — the Multi User
Dungeon which runs on a main-
frame and has lots of budding
Wizards playing at once and
beating hell out of each other.

Well, BT (who run MUD) are
setting up a new company called
Confucious, which will be res-
ponsible for other 'on-line diver-
sions' and one of the companies
who are working on multi-user
games is .. Level 9. Stand by for
Multi-User Red Moon\

MASTERTRONICS
GO TO BED

Zzzzzz ... is the latest adventure
from Mastertronics. The White
Wizard will be glancing at this one
next month — but meanwhile get
set for £ 1 .99 worth of adventuring
— in your sleep! The aim of the
game is to wake up — let's hope it
doesn't leave too many of us snor-
ing at the keyboard . . .

ADVENTURE
CREATOR DELUXE

Incentive Software are current-
ly causing quite a stir amongst
Amstrad owners — they've just
brought out an adventure gener-
ator that not only accepts complex
inputs (including adverbs and pre-
positions) but also includes a
spectacular graphics package and a
whole host of powerful comm-
ands. AND it's far cheaper than the
Quill I Illustrator package.

Yes, you guessed it. The boys at
Incentive have seen the light and
are planning a 64 version. Get
those pens sharpened — this could
be the most important adventure
release of 86.

Wizard Tips .

a a

.. •

■

Stuck by the sponge? Put down
the cat, feed it, and take it from
there . . .

■■ 'V- • ■ ■ '' : :

aiiiiiii

S: Hi-ss?;

LOTOS Of ■ vv vie

Are you a five stone weakling?
Get well ahead with a drink and
boost your strength.

■». ■ m m

KCo nflOOn

Give that guard dog a taste of
someone else's medicine.

, v /a % ' ” -

•: ' .. :•

■ * •• ■ '-a.

- I

ns come expensive. Ch
out boxes,

replenish your bank account.

The Pay-Off

Use those pills ‘
meat AND the

tting through the forbidd
or ain't easy — try looking
through the key-hole first, then
use the newspaper and the
pencil.

•:

Pub Q u est

All trees need a

• -

CLEVER

CONTACTS

Wizards, witches, mages lend
me your ears. It is here that
anyone who is proficient in any
adventure can volunteer to join

my worthy ranks of Clever
Contacts. Simply jot down on a
postcard or equivalent, a list of
all your achievements and send
it off to:

CLEVER CONTACTS, THE
WHITE WIZARD'S DUNGEON,
PO BOX 10, LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE, SY81DB

Attention All Wizards, War-
locks, Witches, and Warlords!

The White Wizard welcomes
correspondence on any aspect
of adventuring. All letters will
be answered (in time) and you
may well win undying fame by
having your name splashed
across these hallowed pages.
You can reach me by post c/o

74 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

Zzzd! 64.

zzp!

Alt

[tentatively, if you have a
modem and can access Prestel
or Telecom Gold, you can leave
a message for me in my mail-
box — 919994854 on Prestel/
Micronet, 83:jnl251 on Gold.
That way you're practically
guaranteed a same-day reply.
Come on! Let's hear from you!

CLUB HELP
OFFERED

Another club which is works
along very similar lines is the
ADVENTURELINE, a
Chelmsford based club run by
Roger Garret. The club
membership is free of charge
(save the cost of an SAE) and for
that you r get you r f i rst free
newsletter. Interested? Then
write to:

ADVENTURELINE, 52 Micawber
Way, Chelmsford, Essex
Tel (0245) 442098

EUREKA HOTLINE

Phone 01 947 5626 between 3
and 6pm on a Friday afternoon
for the Eureka Hotline. Also
Domarkwill reply to any
enquiries by post. Write to:
Domark Ltd, 204 Worple Rd,
Wimbledon, London SW20 8PN
(Please enclose a SAE)

If there are any other clubs out
there in the big, wide world and
you wish to enrol the White
Wizard's readers through his
chronicles, then by all means let
me know.

HELP

OFFERED

Colossal Adventure, Dungeon
Adventure, Adventure Quest,
Lords of Time, Snowball, Return
to Eden, Erik the Viking, Emerald
Isle, Red Moon, Most of the
Mysterious Adventures, Heroes
and Empire of Karn, The Hobbit,
Pirate Adventure and
Adventu reland.

David Varley, 1 Crossman
Street, Sherwood, Nottingham
NG5 2HR

The Hulk, Twin Kingdom Valley,
Eureka (Prehistoric), Eureka
(Roman), Valhalla, The Hobbit,
Heroes and Empire of Karn,
Spiderman, Ring of Power,
Gremlins, Dungeon Adventure,
Witch's Cauldron, Quest of
Merravid, Lords of Time, Urban
Upstart, Deadline, Sherlock and
Dracjonworld.

Kevin Eason, 24 Bulwer Road,
Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottingham
NG17 8DR

Phone Nottingham 753725 after
4.30pm week days and 2.00pm
weekends

Spiderman, The Hulk, Ten Little
Indians, Classic Adventure,
Hobbit, Quest for the Holy Grail,
Voodoo Castle, Pirate
Adventure, Mission Impossible,

Adventu reland and The Count.

S Williams, 32 Hornbeam Close,
Horsham, Sussex RH13 5NP

Heroes of Karn, Return to Eden,
The Hulk, The Hobbit, Fools
Gold, Tombs of Xieops, Golden
Baton, Eureka (Prehistoric),

Twin Kingdom Valley, and
Stranded.

Lawrence Simm, 10 Maddox
Cottages, Runnels Lane,
Thornton, Merseyside L23 1TR

Spiderman, The Hulk, Gremlins,
Claymorgue Castle, Nuclear
War Games, Empire and Heroes
of Karn, Twin Kingdom Valley,
Crystals of Cams, Witch's
Cauldron, Mystery of Munroe
Manor, Aztec Tomb, The Search
For King Solomons Mines and
ALL Channel 8 adventures.

G Mitchell, 63 Brownlow St,
Haxby Rd, York, Y03 7LW
Tel (0904) 27489 between 10.00
am and 1.00pm or 4.30pm to
8.00pm

Heroes and Empire of Karn, Zim
Sala Bim, Ring of Power, Eureka
(Roman), Valhalla, Hampstead
and Castle of Terror.

Colin Loosemore, 29 Rufus
Gardens, Totton, Southampton
S04 3TA

Colossal Adventure, Dungeon
Adventure, Lords of Time,
Snowball and The Hobbit.

Philip Chan, 7 Rushmead Close,
Canterbury, Kent CT2 7RP
Tel (0227) 45391 1 between 6.00
and 9.00pm only

Pirate Island, Secret Mission,
Voodoo Castle, Strange
Odyssey, The Count, Mystery
Fun House, Pyramid of Doom,
Ghost Town, Savage Island
(parts I and II), Golden Baton,
Claymorgue Castle, Castle of
Terror, Subsunk, Urban Upstart,
Eric the Viking and Emerald Isle.
K Lees, 25 Whimlatter Place,
Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham
DL5 5DR

CORRES-

PONDENCE

Here are some more tips for you
poor people who need instant
aid on some adventures.
Remember this part is written
by the people for the people, so
use it to its full.

ZORKI

Resevoir blocking? Press
buttons but not blue, turn the
bolt with something handy and
wait for all to drain.

MASK OF THE SUN

Knowing your left and right
when moving a rather large pot
could prove useful.

The pedlar is no medicine man
. . . His magic cure is nothing but
a heap of trouble.

VQQi

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STOKE ON-TRENT
TEL: 0782 273815

ZZAPI64 February 1986 75

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Gremlin Graphics have just
released a really bouncy game
which puts you in control of a
bouncy red ball which has to
negotiate a whole range of
hazards. Well, what do you
expect, eh? I mean, a ball's life is
hardly a happy or easy one. If
you're not being kicked all round
the shop, some sporty nurd's
trying to propel you into the
wide blue yonder with a
well-timed biff with a lump of
wood or smacking you against a
wall with a racquet or
somesuch.

It ain't easy being a ball. In
BOUNDER, you have to keep
bouncing of the pavement,
avoiding a variety of low-flying
nasties out to burst you AND
you make forward progress only
to reach the end of a section of
hostile terrain so you can be
booted into goal. And start
another section. More cruelty to
Balls, I see, I see.

Any day now the boys from
TIBBLES will be paying the lads
at Gremlin a visit. I'll be bound.
TIBBLES? Team Introduced to
Bestow Balls with Lives that are
Easier and Safer. I mean, getting
burst all the time, just for
landing on the wrong bit of a
Commodore screen is well out
of order.

TIBBLES is going to be dead
cross when they learn that
Gremlin have got one of this
month's Gold Medals for their
Ball abuse. But then that's not
got a lot to do with you average
Ball-loving Competition Minion,
now has it. Prizes is what's on

offer my lovelies, and in this
instance. Gremlin are offering
no less than 25 Sweatshirts, with
a delicately designed BOUNDER
design in this Spot The Ball
competition.

Arranged on this page are a
couple of real live action shots
from the game, which clearly
show the Ball undergoing
torture at the hands of a joystick-
wielding bozo from the ZZAP!
reviewing team. (Just look at the
pain on its little face — aah.) In
our artist's impression (the non-
photo which forms part of the
entry form) the Ball, fed up with
all the abuse, has made a break
for freedom and hopped it. Or

bounced it, even.

Using your skill and
judgement, mark with a single
"X" where you think the centre
of the ball was, just before it
dematerialised to join its chums
in the TIBBLES sanctuary. Only
one cross on the form. A valid
entry must not only contain your
"X MARKS THE SPOT" and your
address, but also your
sweatshirt size. Even if you get
cross smack on the right spot,
you won't win if you haven't put
your chessie size on the form, so
be warned.

Off you go then — and spare a
thought for all those abused
balls still in captivity . . .

Play Spot the Ball and you could be
the proud owner of a hand-crafted

BOUNDER Sweatshirt.

Name

ADDRESS

POST CODE ....... SHIRT SIZE

ENTRIES TO BALLS, ZZAP!, PO BOX 10, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8
1DB to arrive by 13th February.

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 77

£9.95 inc VAT. Available from W.H.S

and all good software ret
ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME, The Green

(PfirP are include

lendei

OOLW

S, BO
itlets.
by-de

The Shadow is much
amused by a piece of
information concerning the
Steve Evans classic
Guardian. It appears that
scores of around 1,000,000
are in fact impossible to
achieve, since the game
goes haywire several
thousand points beforehand.
The Shadow wonders if Mr
Rignall realised this when he
'scored' 1,020,950 on said
game . . . ?

Word reaches the Shadow
via the global village, that
Commodore Computing
International journalist,
Francis Jago, has a rather
unusual mark on his person
— a tattoo of Felix the cat
tastefully adorns the left
hand 'side' of his posterior.

In fact Mr Jago recommends
such dermatological
decoration — 'You ought to
get it done, it's more trendy
than an earring', he
endorsed, and added, as he
ruefully massaged the
aforementioned region, 'but
it doesn't half give you gip'.

WHAT'S H<- KNOW

fteour ML

Thankfully, Mr Jago isn't
ZZAP! 64 February 1986 79

anything like his tattoo — a
pain in the — ask anyone
who knows him.

Perceiving things that
mere mortals can only
marvel at, the Shadow has
received, after some
considerable delay, the
Commodore version of
Mercenary. The game takes
place in the 21st Century and
you play the title role of a
futuristic soldier of fortune
who has crash landed on the
planet Targ. The inhabitants,
the Palyars, are at war with a
race of robots known as the
Mechanoids, and with only a
ninth generation PC called
Benson for company, you
must survive until the
opportunity to escape arises.
This can be achieved in
several different ways, one
of which the Author, Paul
Woakes, will not reveal.
However, early in the new
year Novagen are releasing
the Targ Survival Kit,
containing full colour maps

of the city and Palyar archive
material on the subterranean
complexes, along with a host
of hints and clues in the form
of a novelette Mercenary:
Interlude on Targ.

The Shadow is immensely
impressed with Mr Woakes'
efforts, especially the speed
of the vector graphics, the
likes of which have never
been seen on the 64 before
— a variety of unusual
structures move
convincingly fast, but
smooth, and there is not the
slightest trace of flicker to be
seen. Mercenary: Escape
From Targ is available from
Novagen now, at a price of
£9.95 on cassette and £12.95
on disk. The review on the
other hand, will not appear
until next issue.

Task Set have been hard at
work recently and have
come up with Quicksilva's
latest release, Yabba Dabba
Dooi, based around the age
old cartoon series, the

Flintstones. The star of the
piece is Fred Flintstone, with
guest appearances by his
wife, Wilma, and an
assortment of other
characters, mainly 'cute'
dinosaurs. Yabba Dabba
Doo! follows its television
counterpart closely, with
cartoon quality graphics and
befitting gameplay.
Incidentally, as ardent fans
of the series will already
know, the title comes from
an expression frequently
uttered by Mr Flintstone in
times of elation.

Interceptor's new release,
Wild Ride, features the 'first
ever Lodagame', a game to
play as the main program
loads. The Shadow recalls
that this is not quite so, as
Century's Skyline Attack
allowed you to play the age
old game of Snake while it
loaded. Nevertheless, as is
often the case with such
novelties, the Lodagame is
far more fun to play than the
actual game itself.

The Shadow notices with
interest that Thor have been
reincarnated by Odin and
have two new games — Arc
of Yesod, the follow up to the
ZZAP! Sizzler Nodes of
Yesod, and /CUPS, a fast
moving shoot em up. The Rt
Hon Charlemagne
Fotheringham, Grunes
Charles to his friends, is once
again in search of the
Monolith, an extremely
sophisticated tactical
warfare computer in
disguise, in Arc of Yesod.
This time however, Charles'
exploration takes place on
the planet Ariat, which looks
uncomfortably familiar . . .
Despite graphic similarities
to its predecessor, Arc has
enough original play
elements to make the
journey worthwhile and will
be reviewed in full in the
following issue of ZZAP!

Both Martech and
Orpheus have two new
imminent releases — Zoids
has just been finished and
looks very promising. The
Electronic Pencil Company

have produced a superlative
product, which is
complemented perfectly by
what can only be described
as Rob Hubbard's most
powerful and atmospheric
piece of music yet. Another
excellent Rob Hubbard tune,
this time with a heavy Jean-
Michel Jarre influence, is to
be found on the 64 version of
One Man and His Droid from
Mastertronic. But I digress.
The Young Ones computer
game has finally been
completed and is on sale at
this very moment. It too,
features some quality music
from the television series,
although the Shadow didn't
recognise the main piece
running throughout the
game. Still, the Shadow feels
sure that addicts of the
opiate of the masses
(television, for the ignorant
or naiive) will not be
disappointed. While on the
subject of Orpheus product,
the Shadow feels he ought to
mention that the long
awaited disk version of the
ZZAP! Gold Medal utility
Electrosound, is now
available to all who desire it.

Ocean have actually
managed to release some of
their 'forbidden fruit',
although Transformers can
hardly be described as tasty.
It is a game based on or
around the television
program of the same name
and was written by Denton
Designs. The Shadow must
point out though, that this is
not recommendation in
itself, as Denton's lastest is
far from being their greatest.
Now all that remains to be
seen are Daley Thomson's
Super Test, Street Hawk,
Knight Rider, Hunchback:
The Adventure, V — the list
seems near endless.

Any facts bearing
resemblance to anyone or
thing, living or dead, are
entirely coincidential and
unintentional and should be
ignored. Shadowspiel
appears each month by kind
courtesy of the Shadow.

80 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

of w HITS”i

Game

History

ALL THESE %

BLOCKBUSTERS 1
TOGETHER ON ONE 1

GIANT

COMPILATION

SPECTRUM £9.95
AMSTRAD £9.95

COMMODORE 64 £9.95
DISC £14.95

[COMMODORE and AMSTRAD]

Stocked at Selected Branches of:

W H Smith, Boots, John Menzies
/oolworth. Greens, Laskys and Rumbelows

1 * ] "J

y Fil J

» 3

wj ■ » j

bbt « y w y Jy ^ y .j

* Jk T A • jl % yB 9

—

■■■■■■■

REVEAL THE INNER
ZZAP! REVIEWER'S Ml

Voyage into the Cranium of
your favourite ( or least
favourite) reviewer. Tell us

what you find .. .

Activision do a good job,
particularly when it comes to
releasing Commodore games
produced by Lucasfilm. Mind
you, of course, Lucasfilm don't
do too bad a job when it comes
to actually writing the games.
So far it's two Sizzlers and two
Gold Medals, track-record-wise
as we media superstars like to
say.

By way of celebration (as we
Competition Minions like to say,
but never get to do), by way of
celebration, Activision are
going to give away lots of
goodies. Top prize in this little
Lucasfilm Games competition is
no less than a 1541 Disk Drive
with all four Lucasfilm games on
disk. Second and Third Prizes
are all four games on cassette
and then there are fifty, yes fifty,
runner-up prizipoos: A copy of
this month's Gold Medal,
Eidolon.

Rescue on Fracta/us puts you
in the cockpit of a craft, flying
over the rugged landscape of a

hostile planet in search of
survivors from crashed Scout
Ships. A Sizzler from Lucasfilm
Games. Koronis Rift is the other
sizzler — a big Sizzler indeed —
in which you play the part of an
intergalactic Steptoe,
rummaging around wrecks of
ships in search of techno-scrap.
Gold Medal Numero Uno was
Ballblazer, the ultimate in arena
combat ballgames. Now, on
pages 28 to 30 inclusive of this
very issue. Eidolon is a Gold
Medal.

In Eidolon you are scampering
around inside your own mind.
Yes. Inside your own mind. As
you might expect, there's a
whole range of unpleasant
nasties to be fought off during
yourquest for inner discovery —
read the review, and you'll get
the idea.

To enter the competition,
you'll have to imagine you are
travelling around inside the
mind of one oftheZZAP!
reviewers. (Nasty thing to ask
you to do, I know, but there you
go.) Stay inside the head of one
of the snivelling creatures we

actually pay money to for
reviewing games for as long as
you can. Then, just before it all
gets too much, and you collapse
with sensory overload, sit down
and commit your discoveries to
paper.

What we want to see is either a
map of the contents of a
reviewer's mind, or maybe a

couple of drawings or paintings
of what you imagined you saw.
What will be discovered lurking
inside Penn's Cranium? Is
Liddon's skull really full of
nothing but thoughts of food? Is
Masterson's brainpan full of old
British Rail timetables? Is
Riggers really that obssessed
with high scores?

Answers please, in the form of
paintings, drawings,
photographs, videos or 70mm
feature films to: HEADACHES,
ZZAP!, PO BOX 10, LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE, SY8 1DB. Make
sure the results of your
mindprobes arrive by 14th
February. And good luck.

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 83

WHftT H6DUT -me DFSER.T RRTS

D esert Fox is one of those
'difficult to categorise'
games involving arcade
and stragey elements. The game
puts you into the heat of World
War Two's desert campaign and
pits your wits against that most
notorious of opponents, Rom
mel. There are several camp
aigns selectable from the main
menu but each of these has
several constituent parts wich
may be individually played out
in practice sessions, again selec-
table from the main menu.

Before you get that involved
however, there is the option to
modify the sound effects used
throughout the game. Basically,
a joystick is used to toggle

Stukas have to be eliminated by
Lone Wolfs slow firing but
powerful gun before too much
damage is inflicted by the Luft-
waffe. For all the scenarios,
damage is shown in a gauge at
the bottom of the commander's
display.

There is also a tank duel
section where an enemy tank
(apparently with firepower sim-
ilar to Lone Wolf's) skirts across
the limits of your field of vision,
loosing off shots as it goes. Only
one direct hit is needed to knock
out a tank but apart from the
difficulties of finding its range, it
seems to be highly maneouvre-
able and avoids many shots as a
consequence. It does get nearer

the enemy. Their are also two
sights. Which of the two sights is
in operation depends on whet-
her the joystick is toggled left or
right. Simultaneous operation
of the two weapons is imposs-
ible. As usual, the score for this
section is displayed in a window
in the right hand part of the
'dashboard' — for want of better
terminology. This section be-
comes horrendously complex
because as well as the enemy
aircraft (shown in red) there are
defending (green) Spitfires,
which must not be shot down
(unless you enjoy throwing
away points).

An ambush scenario included
in the game is vaguely reminis-

DESERTFOX

US Gold/Sydney Developments, £9.95 cass, £14.95 disk, joystick only

envelope settings. After these
have been altered to the player's
satisfaction, it's best to proceed
directly to the first of the practice
sequences.

The first of these is an attack
on Lone Wolf (the codename for
your tank — a fictitious Turbo
Sherman) by enemy Stuka dive-

as the fight progresses but it
also tends to achieve more hits,
so a balance has to be struck
somewhere.

One of the trickier sections to
master is the Convoy scenario.
This has Lone Wolf protecting
an allied Convoy under attack
from enemy fighter-bombers.

cent of the Star Wars Death Star
Trench sequence as Lone Wolf
travels through a canyon, trying
to detroy the mortar emplace-
ments attacking him from both
sides. There is little else to this
sequence but it is one of the
fastest moving parts of the
game.

Stuka! Stuka! Lone Wolfs gunner desperately tries to line up his
cross hairs before the plane can strafe the tank.

bombers. The player is given the
tank commander's point of view
as enemy bombers zoom in
from the horizon. Guided by a
radar display in the bottom left
hand corner of the screen and a
joystick movable sight, the

The screen shows a continuous
line of moving vehicles in the
middle distance and an absolute
traffic jam of fighter bombers
letting loose their rain of hell.
This time Lone Wolf has two
heavy machine guns pointing at

Finally there is a minefield to
successfully navigate. Mines are
just visible and can be destroyed
by gunfire, however any that go
under the tracks will inevitably
do damage to the tank and slow
it down by covering the tracks in

sand. A blue line appears in the
compass window indicating the
course to be followed. The time
taken to complete this section
also has a direct bearing on the
score achieved.

After competence has been
gained in each of these sections,
you are ready to move up to the
campaigns. There are five of
these, each harder than the last.
To win, it is necessary to relieve
any supply depots threatened
by Rommel's forces. If a prohib-
itive amount of damage is done
to the 'Super Tank' or if any one
of the depots falls to the enemy,
the campaign is lost.

When f first saw
this game , / felt like
doing a Gary Lid-
don special all over
the keyboard. After
a time , however , /
discovered that the
game contained a
variety of previous
fy hidden attractions and that
the apparent simplicity of the
graphics belied the underlying
complexity and skillful design of
the campaigns. The malevolent
voice and sinster, imposing
sound effects add to the sense of
urgency and desperation perva-
ding the scenarios. Ultimately ,
this is a sophisticated Beach-
Head with distinctly yellow over-
tones. 1 always express reserva-
tions about these militaristic
hybrids, feeling that they lack all
the potential action of the swiftly
moving arcade game and the
supposed integrity of the true
simulation but having said all
that — I really had a good time
on this one . . .

At the start of the campaign, a
map of North Africa is displayed
with several icons and charac-
ters on it. A little tank reveals
your current position and a
swastika, that of Rommel. Grey
flags show where the depots
are. These turn to blue if the
depot has been saved or red if
they are lost. To the right of the
screen are several icons labelled
Move, Airstrike, Radio, and
Zoom. Zoom is used to find the
status of the depots. If that icon
has been selected and the cursor
is located over one of the flags, a
picture zooms into the centre of
the screen to show the number
of enemy and allied tanks at the
depots and an indication of how
many hours it has left before
falling to the enemy. Once a
depot has been selected to be
saved, on the basis of that inf-
ormation, the Radio icon disp
lays a beacon coming from Lone
Wolf. The joystick is used to
point this in the desired direc-
tion and allows the interception
of enemy messages indicating
the amount and type of opposi-
tion likely to be encountered on
a given course. Clever use of this
feature is used to avoid unne-
cessary encounters and action.
As all the campaigns last at least
24 hours, there are dawn, day.

84 ZZAPJ64 February 1986

MMan

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I|?t* jitf^* ******^**^ M Pwwiw iliiU lw t ti

tiiuimiiUMUHiUtiiUJtbuiiiiUiiiiiiiijtiUtuilli

MUMU .

Lone Wolf s twin machine guns are the only thing that stand
between the enemy aircraft and their potential convoy target.

Fox /s more
? glorified
Battlezone than
anything else . The
digitized speech is
of the most
outstanding as-
pects of this pro-
gram, it's very dear
with a distinct Ger
man accent The graphics are
great with very effective 3D and
the colours used nicely . The
options on the title screen are
very good allowing you to prac-
tise all the different aspects of
the game. The game itself re-
quires a combination of strategy
and arcade ability making it
slightly unusual to play. / really
liked playing this game, and
with its multitude of options and
varied gameplay it's something
which should keep a budding
tank commander happy until the
snows thaw.

dusk and night sequences. Com-
bat should really be avoided at
night and dusk. Incidentally, if
there is nothing but static on the
radio, it means no opposition
will be encountered.

Selecting the Move icon
moves Lone Wolf a certain
number of units in the direction
the Radio beacon was last
pointing. Rommel is out to stop
you from succeeding in your
mission and as a result careful
consideration must be given to
which route is to be taken. If it
begins to seem unlikely that a
depot may be reached before it
falls to the enemy then an Air-
strike may be called in to buy
time. There may only be one
Airstrike in the game however,
so it's advisable to pick your
time with care.

If (or when?) Rommel is finally
encountered, it's better to have
suffered very little damage as
eight direct hits are required to
make him surrender. If the
Desert Fox does surrender, 8000
bonus points are awarded and
one depot is saved. Also, saving
a convoy buys a depot more
time and reduces the player's

damage when he reaches it.

IjMij Bgtx Desert Fox is an
unusual, but very
competent, blend
°f strategy and a r-
cade action, at -
^gsjSSjk though the former
attribute is perhaps
9 more subtle than
the fatter, but it

certainly exists. On playing it is
evident that a great deal of
thought and time has gone into
the game, as it is highly polished
in appearance. The graphics are,
on the whole, excellent and the
sound is befitting and comple-
mentary, especially the crystal
dear speech. Despite being
reminiscent of Beach Head,
Desert Fox is a great game in its
own right and should appeal to a
wide variety of 64 owners.

%’ ■* ‘’VifHwfiniiiw

: J

> - : r- ; ' ; • ; ; f i ; r ? ; * : ? ; * ; ? j f i * * y ; ? ; t ^ ? * * * ^ :

Presentation 90%

Plenty of options and slick in
appearance.

Graphics 82%

Simple but effective.

Sound 95%

Superb FX and speech
synthesis.

Hookability 86%

Easy to get into but demanding
overall game.

Instability 87%

Five campaigns with increasing
difficulty.

Value For Money 85%

Oodles of variety in the
gameplay.

Overall 87%

An excellent blend of strategy
and arcade action

ZZAPI64 February 1986 85

SPRING BOARD DIVING

PISTOL SHOOTING

i ■ "W

GIANT SLALOM /

ROWING

CYCLING

VERKON

PENALTIES

Ocean Software is available from selected branches ,o£

r ' JBSSDSEk. LASKYS, Rumbelows. COMtsT,

Ocean Software

Ocean House • 6 Central Street

Manchester- M2 5NS

!&ephc^^^tyB32 6633 • Telex 669977 Oceans G

f amam

Presentation 73%

Unusual and 'novel' eight player
option and attractive attract
mode.

Graphics51%

Screens look good — until they
move.

Sound 21%

Crude, nostalgic sound FX.

Hookability 36%

Dull, uninspiring play fails to
spark enthusiasm.

La stability 28%

Dull, uninspiring play fails to
rekindle spark of enthusiasm.

Value For Money 32%

Modern price for an aged game.

Overall 30%

Too similar to its predecessor
and nothing exciting or new to
offer.

SPACE PILOT

Anirog, £7.95 cass, joystick or keys

Oh dear. This thinly
disguised but
much disfigured
Time Pilot 84 done
just totally fails to
do anything com-
petently. Arcade
clones are just exe-
rcises in program-
ming , all the tricky sorting out of

AH the author has to do is copy
what he has seen. Space Pilot 2
completely misses the point.
Essential elements from the
original have totally been mis-
sed. Anirog's version is a jerkily
scrolling , slow moving yawn of
a game. The sprites have little
idea what the background is
doing. I'm sorry but Space Pilot
2 is just not worth anyone's
time.

Space Pilot II
seems to be a de
luxe version otthe
original Space Pilot
released well over
a year ago by Ani -
Other than
‘ erent back

round scenery,
there is nothing new in Space
Pilot II worthy of mention. Both
graphics ana sound are very
poor by today's standards, with
scrolling and sound FX to match
the gamep/ay, ie stow and weak.
As ft stands Space Pilot II is too
simitar to its predecessor to be
worthwhile — in fact / would say
considering the age of the orig-
inal, this is worse.

SP II is that it allows up to eight
players to compete against one
another in the same game —
useful if you've got a load of
mates round and they all want a
go.

W hen Time Pilot 84
appeared anyone who
saw it gasped at its
fabulous 3D bas-relief graphics.
In fact it's true to say that TP 84
has influenced quite a few pro-
grammers and is responsible for
a lot of the 3D bas relief games
around today (Paradroid and Z
for example).

Anirog's Space Pilot II is a
version of TP 84, although it

It's a shame that
Anirog haven 't pro-
duced a true Time
Pilot 84 done with
graphics like Z, as
this stands it just
v doesn't come up to
the standards set
by Pino's first
release. The graphics look quite
nice when static , but once they
start to scroll, or rather body-
pop, the whole image is ruined
by the b/ocky movement. The
sprites are pretty and colourful,
but slow and jerky as they follow
their trajectories. The sound
isn't much cop either — it mostly
consists of high pitched whines
and squeals which really jar the
eardrums. The really annoying
aspect of the game is the
amount of time the program
takes to give you a new life — it
takes ages. If you do want a Time
Pilot 84 type game then have a
look at the others before
deciding.

doesn't contain all the elements
of the arcade game — in TP 84
there were ground targets to
strafe, Anirog's version hasn't
any.

SP/I is a classic shoot em up in
the respect that there is no
objective to the game other than
to stay alive and score as many
points as possible by killing
anything that moves. The game
takes place over an eight way
scrolling landscape and plays
very similarly to Asteroids —
your ship can be rotated through
360 degrees as it flies over the
surface of the alien planet.

Kamikaze alien craft emerge
from the sides of the screen and
try to ram your ship, putting you
in a kill or be killed situation.
Occasionally a formation of
three craft emerges, shoot them
all and you get a points bonus.
Being rammed isn't the only
worry — the aliens also fire
deadly heat seeking missiles
which chase you around the
screen until you either destroy
them or shake them off.

The game has several differ
ent 'stages' which get more and
more difficult as you progress
through them. To move from
one stage to another you have to
survive on a stage for a set
amount of time. This time is
shown on screen as a bar which
slowly ticks down. When it re-
aches zero the landscape dis-
solves and your ship is auto-

matically transported to the
next, more difficult stage. There
are four different landscapes in
all, although they do change
colour once you've been th-
rough them all.

The basic gameplay doesn't
change as you go through the
levels although the aliens be-
come faster and more cunning
and the heat seeking missiles
really home in at speed. An extra
life is awarded for every 30,000
points you score, and you cer-
tainly need them.

One rather unusual feature of

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 87

" kiM* RUN

CftN BCXJNQcC*

PC,

LADE RUi

£8.95 cass, joystick or keys

T his must be the first game
to be based around the
music of a film. Apparently
the rights to the actual Blade
Runner film are so complex that
the only way CRL could get the
name of the film on their pack-
age was to licence the Vangelis
soundtrack! So now you know.

The game is set in the not-too-
distant future — twenty four
replidroids, genetically pro-
duced human robots, have

Blade Runner is
one of my all-time
favourite films and
/ therefore looked
forward to the re-
lease of this game
with anticipation.
Unfortunately /
found it to be com
pletely unplayable due to its
difficulty. During the chase se
quence you can either run on the
road or the pavement. If you run
along the road then you get hit
by cars that are clearly on the
other side of the road, and if you
run on the pavement you get
knocked down if you hit a ped-
estrian! There are other really
niggly aspects too — the pauses
at the start and during a game
are a real pain. Whenever you
start you're asked whether or
not you want to redefine the
keys — this takes ages. Another
massive delay happens when
the program switches from
skimmer to chase mode : your
skimmer slowly lands and the
music slowly fades before your
character is deposited on the
street. AH these delays during
the game makes it terribly slow
to play and therefore makes the
whole thing frustrating. It's a
shame the game has so many
faults, if these had been ironed
out then it could have been quite
fun to play.

landed on Earth and are trying to
destroy their creator and so end
the slavery imposed upon them.

You take the role of a Blade
Runner — a person employed by
the police force to track down
and kill any replidroids which
land on Earth. There are six
types of replidroids, a replidroid
one is slow and pretty stupid
and a replidroid six is superiorto
a human in its physical abilities
and just as intelligent.

The replicants have reached
your city and you've been as-
signed to kill them before they
kill their maker. You start the
game in a skimmer — a flying
police car that allows you to
travel through the city at high
speed. In the skimmer the
screen shows three displays
which all have to be used whilst
playing the game. The main
display is a short range detailed
radar map of the local area al-
lowing you to navigate the maze
of streets. It also shows if there
are any replidroids in the loca-
lity. A second, smaller screen is
another radar map, although
this one shows the whole city
and your position in relation to
the replidroids'. The final screen
is a text readout giving inform-
ation on the number and type of
replidroids within the locality.

On the main screen your skim-
mer is represented as a cursor
that can be moved about the
streets. If you locate a replidroid
then move your skimmer over it
and press fire. You automatic-
ally land and are put into chase
mode.

The screen switches to an
Entombed-type display of a
crowded street. The skimmer
lands, you get out and the chase
begins. You have to run after the
replidroid and shoot it. Not an
easy task since the streets are

Disappointment
One had to be the
music — after all,
we're told this is
based on the Blade
Runner music by
Vangelis NOT the
Blade Runner film.
Perhaps you don't
know the film's music — it could
have been written for a hypnotic
game on the 64. However, Blade
Runner the game has a sadly
undernourished version in
which you can hear how good it
would have been but for some
more ' production ' value. In that,
it's like the game, because
Disappointment Twoihas to be
the content. Running along a
grey pavement avoiding white
and grey vehicles that kill you
from the wrong side of the road
and dodging white animated
blobs set against a grey back-
ground suggesting ever so sli-
ghtly the street scenes from the
movie, that scrolls inexorably by
in one direction, recycling the
screen like a very cheap TV car-
toon background — well it just
lacks some vita / ingredient
somewhere. / am very sorry —
somewhere inside CRL's Blade
Runner, there's a really great
game screaming to be let loose,
unfortunately they've tied it up.

packed with people who must
be dodged, if you bump into one
then your game ends. You can
run along the road if it's clear,
but oncoming vehicles do pose
a problem.

At the bottom of the screen
lies a scanner showing how far
ahead the replidroid is and
whether any vehicles are appr-
oaching. If you let the replidroid
outrun you it disappears off the
scanner and your skimmer
drops down, picks you up and
the game switches back to skim-

Despite being
based upon the
film's soundtrack.
Blade Runner the
computer game
seems to borrow
quite a lot of its
scenario from the
actual film's plot.
Replidroid, Replicant? It's all
very similar. Even the main
sprite seems robed in a very
Deckard style macintosh. Blade
Runner is very hard. After ano-
ther ZZAPi minion phoned CRL
to complain over the game's
difficulty he was informed that
'Once you've got your first
Replidroid, you'll never put the
joystick down.' Lucky / was
playing using the keyboard op-
tion or / would have most cer-
tainly got hooked. As it hap-
pened, / wasn 't and it's not likely
that anyone else will be. The
graphics are very sub-standard.
The innocent bystanders getting
pushed into the pavement by
the running Replidroid took very
Lowryesque, monochromatic
matchsticks plodding through
bland backgrounds. Landing
and taking off to destroy Repli-
droids takes way too long, each
time you have to sit through a
convoluted animation sequence
that soon gets tedious. Despite
the hype. Blade Runner misses
out on what was a potentially
excellent game.

mer mode.

When you land you're given a
bounty based upon the repli-
droid you're trying to catch —
1,000 for a replidroid one
through to 6,000 for a six. Also,
as you chase your quarry, a
second bounty ticks down until
you catch it. When you do the
bounty remaining is turned into
points.

Presentation 57%

Despite reasonable options but
there are too many delays
between games and lives which
become a serious irritation.

Graphics 67%

Bland with single colour sprites
and ineffective 3D.

Sound 72%

Competently executed, but
uninspired version of the
Vangelis theme tune.

Hookability 36%

Initial excitement soon gives
way to frustration.

Instability 31%

Very slow, unplayable and dull.

Value For Money 37%

Not worth the money even if
you're an ardent Blade Runner
fan.

Overall 39%

The potential of a Blade Runner
video game has not been
realised.

88 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

"LOVep’TWt MOv/lfc/'

Imagine Software ( 1 984), 6 Central Street

Manchester M2 5NS. Tel: 061-834 3939. Telex: 669977

SPECTRUM 48K Mikie plays a knockout frantic farce in the classroom, locker room COMMODORE 64

and the high school cafeteria. Hip-zap, door attack, throw b alls and
pies...but can you make him hand his love letter to his girl-friend?

SPECTRUM 48K MIKIE

Imagine Software Is available from selected branches oh

He's the hottest cookie in school!

.WHSMITH.^I

woounmrm. LASKYS Rumbelows,

AMSTRAD

Spectrum Shops and all good dealers.

IT MUST 86 2 foe 22flr/

on'

thing is p gmtf/c^// ,,

STARION

Melbourne House, £9.95 eass, disk, joystick or keys

Jilpillii

SpfeiwiWi

wtiiia

}

. i '

Having destroyed an alien time bandit, there's a letter N to be
collected — or is it a Z?

S tarion is set in the far-
distant future. The story
takes place in the year
2010 and you play the role of
Starion, a brilliant rookie fresh
from the space academy. Be-
cause you're so good (?) you've
been trusted with the one and
only timeship — uour mission:
to rectify the devastation
wrought in the space-time cont-
inuum by evil aliens. What these
revolting specimens have done
is to remove items of historical
significance from important
events causing trouble through-
out history.

To rectify this you have to go
and retrieve the stolen items by
patrolling the outer regions of
space, intercepting and destroy-
ing the alien *ships. As you des-
troy each enemy ship it re-
assembles and forms a letter
which must be collected and
stowed aboard your ship. Later,
when you have collected the
required number of letters, you
are asked to unscramble the
resulting anagram to make a
well known word that fits a given
period in time.

When you have unscrambled
the word you must locate the
entrance to a time warp and fly
into it, whereupon a time grid is
displayed. Each grid has nine
time zones and you must decide
which of the time zones contairts
the historical event that your
cargo fits. For example, were it
V-l-C-T-O-R-Y you might think of
Nelson and the Battle of Trafal-
gar — then again, you might
not!

Having solved the problem,
you are rewarded with fresh
oxygen and fuel enabling you to
fly off and solve the next time

zone. However, should your
cargo not fit the current problem
then you are forced to attack
other enemy ships found within
that zone to allow you to gain
enough energy to escape and
find the correct zone.

To give you some idea of the
task ahead here's the nature of
the space-time continuum. In all
there are 3 time blocks, within
each block there are 9 time grids,
each time grid has 9 time zones
and space has 3 dimensions. If
you're good at maths then you'll
be able to work out that Starion
has 243 time zones in all.

After correcting history in the
9 zones of a grid you gain access

The Spectrum and
Amstrad versions
of this game are
very impressive
due to the speed of
the graphics and
their playability.
Unfortunately the
Commodore vers-
ion is highly unplayable and has
really awful graphics . The up-
date on the vectors is very slow
making the whole program look
rather jerky. Playing it is even
worse — due to the speed and
the time gap between updates
tracking even the slowest of
alien craft is a real chore. Picking
up the letters is diabolically
difficult and when playing it took
heaps of passes before the first
fetter was picked up. ft's a shame
that the graphics and playability
are so lacking , especially since
Starion is such a good game on
other computers and in itself —
but as the Commodore version
stands it's very dull to play
indeed.

to the next one by solving the
anagram made from the first
letter of each of the zone words.
Access to the next block requires
the first letter of each of the grid
words to be solved. To reach
'event zero' and the ultimate
rank of 'creator' the player must
form the password from the first
and last letters of each of the
three grid words.

If this begins to sound like an
educational program, don't
panic. The screen display shows
instantly that this is a 3D space
arcade game. The cockpit view
uses vector 3D to describe the
enemy ships and letters. Below,
the instrument panel indicates
details on speed, hull tempera-
ture, enemy location, pitch, role,

Conversions usual-
ly seem to go the
other way, from the
machines with the
better sprite hand-
ling capabilities to
those with the less
flexible. The Spec-
trum is pretty
good, however, at handling
vector, wire frame graphics at
speed, witness Elite, generally
considered better on the
Speccy. Starion beat Elite out on
that machine and although
perhaps not as dense a game
still rated highly because of its
fast 3D graphics and entertain-
ing content But now on the 64
it's another story because it's so
slow. That means the shoot em
up sequences have become dull,
removing half the fun . If you
enjoy anagram solving with a
historical bent, then Starion has
plenty to offer, but the game has
become splintered and fails to
satisfy totally.

yaw, fuel and oxygen levels. The
bi-planar scanners show the
location of other objects, hori-
zontally and vertically, be they

It's amazing how
disappointing con-
versions can prove.
The Amstrad and
Spectrum versions
by David Webb are
excellent but for
some reason Mel-
bourne House have
ready slipped up with the
Commodore version, I'm afraid
to say that it's awful. A lot of
readers seemed disillusioned
with Firebird's Elite, annoyed at
how slow and flickery the vector
graphics are. Starion is a dem-
onstration of how slow vector
graphics are capable of running.
The nice gameplay aspects from
the old versions are still incor-
porated but the main space
battle scenes are just so slow,
interest very quickly fades. The
surrounding spaceship cockpit
graphics are very nice but that's
the only good thing / can drag
myself to say about this miss-
release.

ships, mines, missiles or just
debris.

Above the scanners the year
of the current time zone is
shown, vital when trying to
solve the time zone problems.
The hull temperature is also vital
because the outside tempera-
ture increases with speed and
excessive laser fire. The hull can
also be destroyed by direct hits
from enemy weapons or colli-
sion with space rubbish. The
general debris cannot be des-
troyed so you must steer around
it.

Points are awarded in accord-
ance with the speed with which
the player completes each stage
of the game, as well as for the
destruction of enemy targets.
The player is promoted depend-
ing on the number of zones,
grids and blocks that have been
solved.

Presentation 76%

The player can start in any
timezone, but there are no other
options.

. . . v '

Graphics 44%

Very poor vectorgraphics which
don't seem to work well.

Sound 78%

Nice backtrack, but does tend to
get repetitive.

Hookability 53%

The game is very unplayable
due to the update on the vectors.

Instability 46%

Destroying spaceships soon
gets tedious and spoils the fun
of solving the puzzles.

Value For Money 43%

Well below Melbourne House's
usual standards. A •

Overall 45%

Avery disappointing conversion
of an otherwise interesting idea.

90 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

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nteds to

In case you didn't notice, Gertie Goose needs to get round the table
to win, but the Demon King has hidden her eggs.

tab I e to -

92 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

G ertie Goose is a tough old
bird who spends hertime
like most geese do, lay
ing eggs, eating and generally
enjoying life in a goosey sort of
way. All of a sudden these hal-
cyon days are rudely interrupted
by the arrival of an evil and
vicious Demon King and his
horrible minions. This diabolical
character decides to ruin Ger-
tie's life and steal her eggs, what
a rotter! He does so, and wheels
them away to his numerous
inner sanctums in the depths of
the forest where they look like
doors sticking out of the
landscape.

This is where you come into

Gertie Goose is a
very simple game
indeed in both its
looks and game-
The graphics
pretty awful
a terrible col-
our scheme that
really wrenches the
eyeballs. The backgrounds are
extremely basic and the main
character is flickery and keeps
changing colour (rather like
attributes on the Spectrum). The
sound is awful too , mostly con-
sisting of parps and poops. This
type of game looks very dated —
like the sort that you'd have
bought in early 1983 and felt
disappointed with even then.
There's no way that it should sell
at £ 7.95 — £1.99 would still be
too expensive . . .

the game. Playing Gertie you
have to enter the forest, find the
keys to the various inner sanc-
tums and recover the eggs. The
Demon King, being a really,
really nasty piece of work has
left his soldiers to guard the
eggs and prevent Gertie from
rescuing them.

The game takes place over a
multi-directional scrolling
landscape and is viewed from a
camera perspective (like Inter-
national Soccer). The landscape
is littered with trees, rocks and
other obstructions which hinder
swift progress through the
forest.

To get the eggs Gertie must
first find the keys to the inner
sanctums. These are dotted

Have the Ree/ax
people come thr-
ough a time warp
from the past?

've had three
games to look at,
and they all bear
the hallmarks of
extreme age, in
ideas, execution, sound and ap-
pearance. It seems odd that any-
one should want to program
them, let alone market them.
This is a shame since it's always
much nicer to welcome new
software names than to have to
pan them. Gertie Goose has
better graphics than One Bite
Too Deep, but that's not saying
much, the game, too, is margin-
ally beter.

around the forest and are picked
up automatically when run over.
When a key is picked up one of
the doors of the inner sanctum
flashes. If you touch it then you
are allowed entry and can pick
up the egg. Care has to be taken
though, each sanctum has a
soldier guarding it and if he
touches Gertie then a quarter of
the egg is lost to the Demon
King. If, when Gertie has collec-
ted all the eggs, the Demon King
has more eggs than Gertie then
you lose. If Gertie has the most

then she wins and the Demon
King is dispelled and she's free
to live her own life again like all
liberated geese should merely
awaiting retirement — and the
eiderdown.

Throughout Gertie's search
she is pursued by the evil one's
soldiers which makes it difficult
to collect more pieces of egg
than the Demon King. If you
manage to solve the game,
though, you can up the difficulty
level on the title screen and try
again.

ONE BITE TOO DEEP

Reelax, £7.95 cass, joystick or keys

O ne Bite too Deep is a
multi-directional scrol-
ling arcade adventure
which is viewed rather like
Sabre Wulf. You take the role of
Oscar, a brave and fearless
adventurer who has been given
special powers to allow him to
defeat the Master. The story

y. < ‘ >:• : • " • . ■ ' . - > £ • .

The colours used in
this program have
got to be amongst
the most technical-
ly vile you can pos-
sibly conjure up on
the 64 - they're
really eyeball wr-
enchingly awful.
The scenery looks very amateur-
ish and some of the buildings
look like they've been drawn up
by a five year old. The scrolling
is pretty blocky, and the anima-
tion of the characters is poor.
The gameplay is very easy in-
deed, even on the most difficult
level. A hardened gamester
should be able to solve the game
within a few goes! This game
would just about have passed as
an average game two years ago,
but now, even with its £7.95
price tag, it's just not good
enough.

goes that the evil influences of
the Master has broken out from
his tomb and are rapidly spread-
ing. His servants have started to
run riot and have acquired a
taste for human blood, so you

must be careful.

What you have to do is search
the landscape to find the Rese-
arch Station, the place where it's
all happening and enter it. As
you're searching for this awe-

1 just can't believe
Reelax have got the
to release a
game as bad as
One Bite Too Deep.

/ would have been
disappointed if /
had bought this
game a couple of
years ago at a considerably
cheaper price, but now at eight
quid! Sound is virtually non-
existent and the graphics are
obscene — the sprites and back-
rounds made me cringe and /
ave never seen such appalling
use of colour in a computer
game before. One Bite Too Deep
plays just as bad as it looks and
sounds, and has to rate as one
of, if not the worst piece of soft-
ware yet seen on the 64.

some place the servants of that
evil Master are searching for you
. . . and they tend to find you with
ease. These horrendous and
frighteningly horrible servants
come in the form of giant vam-
pire bats and huge floating
green skulls.

If they touch you then they
start sucking the blood from
your body. Your blood is shown
on-screen as a bar which dimin-
ishes as the blood is sucked out,
needless to say that if your
blood bar reaches zero you're
out of gas.

You're not totally defencless
and carry a knife which is activ-
ated by pressing the fire button.
If you hit one of the servants it

GERTIE GOOSE

Reelax, £7.95 cass, joystick or keys

The handsome shape of Gertie Goose is seen outside a log cabin (?)

SUBSCRIBE TO

Presentation 47%

Useful 'help' screen and level
select.

Csraphics 16%

Very basic graphics and an
'orrible colour scheme.

Sound 4%

Eh?

HookabiUty 19%

The game is very simple . . .

La stability 9%

. . . and consequently it palls
swiftly.

Value For Money 1 2%

Much too dear for sucn an
outdated game.

Overall 14%

May appeal to the very young,
but only may.

Address

FOR A YEAR'S

WORTH

OF GAMES INFO
AND FUN

As a subscriber to ZZAP!, you qualify for large future discounts
on selected games, AND by using your subscriber code number,
you also qualify for the regular, standing discount on software
purchased through ZZAP MAIL ORDER! !

When told that
Gertie Goose is to
retail for £ 7.95 /
honestly thought it
was a joke. Most
companies' budget
ranges do not de-
serve this as one of
their titles. Even in
the dawn of 64 software devel-
opment titles of a standard tike
this where only produced by the
true pioneers of bad taste. The
graphics are awful f , all the col-
ours that don't hit it off in
combination have all been em-
ployed to create a pizza-like
effect. To add to the nausea-
inducing colour scheme , all the
sprites epiletica/lv canter ar-
ound the screen. Reefax should
sit back, look at their product
and do something else. I'm
afraid that Gertie Goose has
managed to slip totally below
my comtempt. To quote a man
much admired ' 'Reefax, don't do
it.'

ZZAP! 64 SUBSCRIPTION

Yes, I want to subscribe to ZZAP! 64 for one year
Name

Postcode

I enclose a cheque/postal order for £14.50
made payable to NEWSFIELD LTD.

ZZAP! SUBSCRIPTIONS, 1-2 King Street,
Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1AQ

flies away for a short period of
time to recover. You also have a
jimited shield which gives you
immunity from the blood suck-
ing powers of the servants —
this works in the same way as
the blood bar and diminishes
every time you use it.

If you manage to find the
Research Station and success-
fully enter it, then you can begin
your search for the five objects
which, if collected, allow you to
defeat the Master. There are 36
rooms inside the Research Sta-
tion and the objects are hidden
randomly within its walls. To

Of the three pro-
ducts to from Ree-
lax to enter the of-
fice this month One
Bite Too Deep is by
no means the
worst of the bunch
but that is recom-
mendation in itself.
As with their other productions,
Reelax's Bite is of unbelievably
awful quality. The graphics usu-
ally create the first impression of
a game and Bite too Deep's are
awful. Drunken bytes swilling
around on confused and ghastly
coloured backgrounds do not
particularly impress anyone, let
alone me. Ignoring the optic
torture and paying more atten-
tion to the gamepfay / was left
wishing / hadn't Don't buy this,
it may encourage other releases
of this sort.

pick up an object simply run
over it.

Once you've got all five ob-
jects then you can complete
our objective by finding the
aster's tomb and bricking him
in.

If you manage to solve the
game then you can always try to
do it again on one of the harder
levels by changing the difficulty
option on the title screen.

Presentation 47%

Nice help screen and level select
but nothing else.

Graphics 13%

Revolting colours £

Revolting colours and very basic
graphics.

Sound 4%

Notta lot.

Hookability 16%

Initial interest.

Lastability 7%

But the game is terribly easy and
lacks action.

Value For Money 6%

This game definitely doesn't

warrant its price tag.

Overall 9%

It's a shame to see software as
bad as this being released today.

'OOHJ *<*•••/" ZZAP! 64 February 1986 93

94 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

HauiCou* ureaphe

your pen wrist.

^ DIaoca ennrl v

European orders please add 50p. per
item for the extra postage. Other
countries by application in writing for

P ostal quote.

lease allow 28 days for delivery

Please send me — ZZAP!

T-shirts
£4.50 each SD MD LD
. Sweatshirts £8.95 each

SD MD LD
..ZZAP! Caps £3.95 each

Name . .
Address

Postcode

I enclose cheque/postal order to ZZAP! 64 for
£

ZZAP! 64 MAIL ORDER DEPT., PO BOX 10, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE SY8 1DB

It just isn't possible to be
correctly dressed unless you're
Zzapped up properly. How can
you haute couture or strut your
stuff without wearing ZZAPl's
height of fashion clothing lines?
No, there's simply no way out of
being IN, and if you're in, then
you'll never want to be out of
your ZZAP! shirts and cap.
Anyway, you get the idea, so
onto the real business in
hand . . .

Slinky T-shirts in high quality
100% American cotton with
double stitching on neck and
shoulder seams for lasting wear
(sequins are an optional extra
you'll just have to stitch on
yourself). Adorned with the
ZZAP! logo and your favourite
hero, Rockford (well, if you hate
him, you can always hang the
shirt up and throw darts at it),
the T-shirts come in three sizes,
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For extra protection against the
British weather and various
laser blasts, how about a ZZAP!
Sweatshirt. These are long-
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Having got that alien-terrorising
torso safely covered up, have
you considered the danger from
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down on your head? You have?
Then it's time to do something
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It probably won't do much for
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. ''fi

0 ^

THE LUCASFILM INTERVIEW

George Lucas was one among the generation of new Hollywood film directors who emerged during the 70s to
regenerate the cinema. Lucas made a science fiction film called THX 1 138, hardly anyone saw it. He followed it
up with AMERICAN GRAFFITI, it fared well and people reckoned a new talent had emerged. But with the third
film , STAR WARS, George Lucas became a giant , and together with his friend Steven Spielberg , revolutionised
the fading fortunes of modern cinema. Since then , he has gone on to produce films , create Industrial Light and
Magic , a special effects company centred around the use of computers and now his company , LUCASFILM has
inevitably turned its attention to electronic entertainment in the form of computer games. Lucas was able to build
on the strength of his film computer division , the men responsible for the fantastic effects in films like RETURN
OF THE JEDI and STAR TREK, to produce games that would be new and different , sure to change the nature of
computer games.

To date LUCASFILM has produced only four games, all of them have been innovative and here in Britain they
have been hailed as the best of new American software. Thanks to the good agency of ACTIVISION who market
the games in Britain , we were able to set up an hour and a half telephone link to Lucasfilm 's headquarters in Marin
County near Los Angeles. The resulting material is too long for one issue , so we're breaking it up into two parts
with the second half next month. For this ZZAP! exclusive , GARY PENN was on the line to ask the questions.

THE LUCASFILM INTERVIEWS: PART I — DAVID
FOX (PROJECT LEADER FOR RESCUE ON
FRACTALUS)

First of the Lucasfilm team to
speak to Gary Penn was David
Fox, Project Leader for
Rescue on Fractalus. Gary
began the session by asking
David whether he was
actually responsible for the
fractal routines used in the
ame. 'No I didn't do the
ractals — it was Loren

"We're all very much
impressed with the type of
work that George Lucas did

with his films."

Carpenter. I was the project
leader for the game. We had
three people on the project

— myself and Charlie
Kellner.' David went on to
elaborate, 'In addition to the
sound he did the flight
dynamics, a lot of the
animation routines — things
like that. Loren Carpenter
was responsible for the
fractal routines — he's not
here right now.'

When asked by Gary about
how many people worked on
a game, Dave replied, 'It
varies. In the case of
Ballblazer it was mostly 95%

— 90% Dave (Levine's) work.
Peter Langston did the
intelligence routines for the
practice droids and some of
the music — most of the
music. And at the other
extreme, with say Koronis,
we had three people working
on it — Rescue had three
people — I guess I'd say
between one and three
people working on a game.
Then on top ofthat we also
have artists who did the
animation artwork.'

GETTING A FILM-LIKE

So how did the team get
involved with Lucasfilm? 'It
was about three and a half
years ago and George Lucas
said that we should be

working in active
entertainment. So to the
computer division we
brought on a man called Peter
Langston, who also had an
agreement with Atari to do
development work. That
continued for the first two

§ ames, but unfortunately just
efore the first two games
were ever released, Atari
changed hands and we ended

up going entirely different
ways.'

Gary asked David why,
despite the fact that none of
the game were based on
George Lucas's films, they all
seemed to possess a film like
quality. Where then did the
ideas actually come from?

'I'd say that the people that
came here, or the reasons we

ended up here, are because
we're all very much
impressed with the type of
work that George Lucas did
with his films and we
appreciate film type
experiences, so we did the
games in a conscious effort to
create that feeling and bring it
over into the games. The

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 95

s*fl

wmm

]amiiuiuuiiuiiuu^

"We really wanted
to create an
experience of
exploring a new
universe."

games themselves — each of
them came about in different
ways. Like in the case of
Rescue it started out with me
sharing an office with Loren
Carpenter, and him being an
expert with fractals — well,
we were wondering what
would happen if we could
somehow incorporate that on
a small computer. And then
the game scenario came out
of that, and went in that
direction. So in that case we
came up with the graphics
idea first — the game came
out of the graphics routine.
The other two games,

Koronis and Eidolon, just
went in the other direction —
the ideas were first and the
graphics followed.'

TRENDS AND
TENDENCIES

When David mentioned that
each game took about a year
to design, Gary enquired as
to how much of that time a
game would spend in
development or whether it
was a case of development
and programming being
simultaneous. The initial part
is the concept, generally, and
then — that's how we do it
now — it's purely concept
first and then development
afterward. There's
development all the way
though the whole phase,
although we usually have a
pretty good idea of where
we're going.'

One thing the Lucasfilm
team is not famous for of
course, is having a prolific
output. Four games in three
ears is a figure that might
lave some software houses
desperate to release
whatever they could as soon
as possible. Lucasfilm
however, are evidently more
patient in this respect. 'Well,
we're continuing with other
projects, but I really can't go
into them specifically —
we're continuing to do some
work on home computer
games and we're looking into
some other areas.' And what
of the future? The American
market seems to thrive on
simulation and strategy
games. 'Right. That's — I
think that's probably going
continue. People seem to o
looking for deeper and
deeper games because

96 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

>L*t

they're not interested with
video games any more. They
don't seem to carry, so they
want something which they
can really spend lots of time
in and explore the play areas
of the game, so they need to
be more and more complex,
deeper and richer.'

David made a reassuring
statement after Gary had
expressed his surprise at
some of the poor reviews

Ballblazer received in the
States. 'I've seen both good
and bad reviews for most of
our games, actually.
Ballblazer — there have
been some excellent reviews
too. It's seems like it's really a
matter of taste. Like some
people we've talked to,
they're convinced that one
game or another game are
fantastic games, and in some
ways I think that's great — it

m # « *

means we aren't just
appealing to the exact same
market with all our games.'

With that one neatly dealt
with, the inevtiable question
arrived. Did George Lucas
contribute in anyway? 'In
some ways — yes. It's his
company and he's essentially
the senior designer and
developer of any project that
happens here. He has been in
from time to time to give us
support on the projects we

do.' Apparently, George also
contributes game ideas and
although the team aren't
working on an adaptation of
any of his films at the
moment, no one seemed too
certain about what might
happen in the future.

Ever the patriot, Mr Penn
went on to ask David if he had
seen any British software and
how he thought it compared,
only to be answered, 'I have
not seen very much, no. So I
can't really say how it does
compare — Noah might be
able to answer that question,
because of all of us, ne's the
one who plays games a lot.'

There's no doubt that
Lucasfilm take their aims very
seriously when creating a
new game themselves,
however. 'I would say when
we're designing a game, the
aim is to create some sort of
an experience — in most of
our cases it's trying to have
something happen that we
want to . . . we really want to
get someone feeling like
they're in a new universe. We
really wanted to create an
experience of exploring a
new universe.

'It's the sort of thing that
happens in a George Lucas
film. It's like you've been
transported to somewhere
else. Most of us like that
feeling and we wanted to be
able to transport the person
to another universe too,
through a game that's really
different. I think it's very
exciting to do that. I wish we
had wide screen and stereo
sound and things like that, to
make the experience even
stronger. But we're doing the

iPiiiiilii

MiiiWr^

best that we can within the
limitations of the machines.'

FITTING IT ALL IN

On the subject of machines,
Lucasfilm use a 68000 based,
semi-micro development
system to design their games.
It runs the Unix operating
system and an assembler.
From there, they download
the code to the Commodore
and Atari machines.
Unfortunately, they feel the
pinch of the limited memory
on these eight bit micros.
When it comes to the crunch,
David is certain about which
gets the best results from the
treatment. 'I think our stuff
looks the best on the Atari,
but they're fairly close on the
Commodore, although the
graphics are certainly slower.
We've been able to come
across on both machines.
There are some things you
can do on the Atari that you
just can't match, like the
shading — if you take a look
at Koronis Rift on the Atari .

' But then, unlike Fractalus,
Koronis Rift didn't appear to
be a straight conversion. It
looked as if both versions
were written specifically for
each machine. David adds,
'Yes, with Rift the
Commodore version and the
Atari version were both
developed in parallel and we
tried to make each version
look the best we could within
each machine's capabilities.'

While they were on the
subject of different
machines' capabilities, Gary
took the opportunity to ask
about Lucasfilm's plans for
software on the new mega-
machines, Commodore's
Amiga and the Atari ST. 'Well,
we're watching the market
with the new computers. We
have an Amiga; we've played
with it a bit and with the
direction the computers are
going in, more speed and so
on, the better we can make
our games look and what we
can do with them.

'In terms of graphics and
sound — I think that what
we've done can be refined a
bit more more, but I don't
think we can make a huge
leap on that. We're
approaching the limits of
what can be done (on the
eight bit computers), but
doing what we're doing with
say fractal based landscapes,
we're really limited by the
computer's graphics
capabilities and also the
speed of the processor. I'm
not sure whether we have
anything in the future that
we'll doing with fractals.

THE LUCASFILM INTERVIEWS: PART II — CHARLIE
KELLNER (PROJECT LEADER FOR THE EIDOLON)

The Eidolon is arguably
Lucasfilm's most innovative
and thought provoking game
to date. And yet, as Gary
discovered, tne original the
game concept came from a*
relatively simple background
as Charlie Kellner explains,
'Well, actually, that's an
excellent question. I'm really
not sure where the
inspiration actually came
from. In general, I'm a
collector of dragons and I
have been interested in them
for a long time. And so has
Gary Witnik — the fellow who
did the artwork on it, and
together we wanted to do a
game with dragons in it.'

One of the game's
strongest features is its
incredible animation
sequences. So how were they
achieved? 'Thank you for the
compliment,' says Charlie,
'but the animation did not
turn out as spectacular as
we'd hoped. We were hoping
to be able animate a large
number of creatures, most of
them at the same time, but it
turned out to be beyond the
limits of the machines.
Actually, the cell animation
that we're doing is very
similar to cartoon style
animation. Each creature that
you're looking at on the
screen is composed of up to
six independent moving
parts.'

FRACTAL GRAPHICS

Most of the Lucasfilm titles,
with the exception of
Ballblazer take advantage of
fractal based graphics. Gary
assumed this to be the case
with Eidolon. 'Oh yes, the
corridors are fractal
generated. It's an adaptation
of the original fractal
generator that produced for
Rescue. The fractal
backgrounds of the caves
were produced using the
same type of fractal
technique that Loren
Carpenter produced for
Rescue, but the application
of it was quite different. We
tried to produce a feeling of
enclosed space rather than an
open plain with mountains. It
turns out there are major

"I'm a collector of
dragons and I have
been interested in
them for a long
time."

differences in the routines
which drive the fractal
generator but the fractal
generator itself is exactly the
same. It turned out to be
more adaptable than we
thought — I think there's a lot
of flexibility for the future
too.'

For someone who
developed such an original
game, Charlie Kellner nas
some interesting views on the
f utu re of the market —
specifically the next year or
so. 'Well, I think in general
we'll be moving away from
the concept of games, but
we're trying to adapt games
into more interactive
technology. We're trying to
produce an experience tnat's
like being part of film, rather
than just oeing part of a
game. But we want to
maintain the game aspect of
— the play aspect of a game. I
think the thing that we're
trying to do in the future can
best oe described as play
rather than games. We want
to produce a development,
perhaps a toy box for people
to play with and let them
invent their own games.'

Charlie confirmed David
Fox's earlier statement that
the game had taken at least a
year to create. While he
enjoyed working on it, there
were, he admits,
complications. 'Well, actually
we aid have to modify the
design. We started out with
something completely
different, that was difficult to
even recognise as the same
game. And really, by just
changing a small portion of it,
changing the theme of the
game we were able to
maintain 90% of what we
wanted to do originally. And
came up with a completely
new games concept.'

THE LUCASFILM INTERVIEWS: PART THREE —
NOAH FALSTEIN (PROJECT LEADER FOR KORONIS
RIFT)

At this point, Noah Falstein
came on the line. The game of
futuristic Techno-scavenging
looks set to become a classic
along with the other
Lucasfilm epics. Did being
the project leader on
Koronis Rift mean it was his
brainchild also? 'Yes, it was
my idea. I wanted to do
something. We had just
about finished Rescue and
Ballblazer at that time and I
wanted to do something that
improved on what we'cfdone
— in particular with Rescue,
in that I thought the fractals
were a very good piece of
software ana that it would be
nice to design a game that
used them a little bit more
directly.

'We had this way of making
reproducable landscapes that
were full 3D, and in Rescue
you don't really care about
the fact that they're real
landscapes because it's just

BEING IN THE SAME
UNIVERSE

Koronis has been compared
to Fractalus — the two are at
least superficially similar in
that both involve exploration
and searching an alien world.
So does Noah see Koronis
Rift as a follow up to
Fractalus? 'Well, early on we
figured that we could make it
that way or not as we chose,
but it really doesn't have to be
in the same universe, but on
the omes and a lot of ideas
we'd kicked around and then
built up something out of
what we had left. I know that
sounds rather vague, but it
was really the creative
process/ As to whether or
not the final version was
worth it, Noah continues,
'I'm not disappointed, but it's
not what I had really hoped at
the beginning. I think with
any game you end up with

learn the paths and find the
best modules, you can win
the game without having to
be very dextrous at all.
Knowing the best path
through and some of the best
ways of getting around on the
planet, lean get through to
the end of the game ana from
start to finish, take about 45
minutes and never really be
in any particular danger of
getting blown up. And yet if
you are starting from scratch,
then it can take weeks of
playing around before you
get to tne point where you are
finally up to the twentieth
level ana have a shot at
winning the game.'

PLAYING OTHER
GAMES

Gary asked whether Noah
had a favourite game and he
admitted that having
designed Koronis Rift, it has
to be the closest to his heart.
As to whether he plays other
games, 'Oh yes, I'm more of a
game player than most of the

couldn't resist asking Noah
what British Software he had
encountered. 'Not too
much,' was the reply. 'We do
get a few titles that nave
filtered out, but for the most
part I think it tends to go in
the other direction.' What
about his opinions of the
British software he had seen?
'It's hard for me to remember
now what I've seen that was
British as opposed to just the

t ames I've played in general.

ut the impression I get is
that because of the way that
the industry has evolved, a lot
of the software that's popular
in Europe in general, is the
kind of stuff that was popular
in the US a year or two ago,
and there is a sort of a lag in
that direction. Also because
of things like the fact that
there are fewer computers
with disk drives in Britain and
Europe, that some of the
natureof games — things like
Ultima or Koronis or
Eidolon are more complex
games and use lots of disk
access. We did a cassette
version of Koronis for

"We're trying to
adapt games into
more interactive
technology. We're
trying to produce an
experience that's j
like being part of
film."

an obstacle. So I figu red that a
game that put you right in the
middle of it, so that you
actually have to find your way
around the mountains, and
know where they were and
find out where things were
behind them. It would
certainly emphasise what we
were doing. Also, I spent
some time thinking about
what makes computer games
fun, and tried to take some of
the basic principles of
exploring, hunting, using
different kinds controls,
seeing what they do — apply
that to a game design ana
come up with something
where a game was involved in
figuring out what the various
kinds of items and gadgets,
and things that you find, will
do. So basically what I did was
come up with something
where it's a game of
exploration and the basic
format is an action game, but
you use what you do in the
action game to work out fairly
complex strategies.'

less than you would have
liked, because of the
limitations; I guess primarily
the amount ot time you've
got to do it and also the
computers that you're

S it on and their own
3 ns, always conspire
to make the game less perfect
than the vision. But I think
that we achieved a good part
of it with Koronis. In
particular I think that
Koronis would have been
improved if we had been able
to add a little bit more tension
and action to it.

'I'm very satisfied with the
way the strategy works out
and the kinds of planning that
you have to do to win. And
the fact that if you work out
the strategies correctly and

others in the group — I spend
most of my lunch hours and a
lot of evenings keeping up
with what's out. I've got a
little library of computer
games at home as well.' Out
of these he has one cu rrent
favourite, 'Well, I'm really
fond of strategy games, in
general, and currently I've
been playing Ultima 4,
which has just come out and
I've been enjoying that quite
a bit. I haven't played the
earlier Ultima s, out this one
is quite good and it's
amazingly deep — I've been
spending about a month
now, playing it fairly
frequently and I'm just, I
don't know, maybe a auarter
of the way through, I tnink.'

As with David Fox, Gary

example, but it really is fairly .

. . ' Clumsy? 'Well, I think it's
probably — cassette owners
will not find it too bad, but if
you've gotten used to playing
the disk version then it
certainly takes longer than
you want.'

NEXT MONTH Gary continues
talking to Noah Falstein and
then takes up with Dave
Levine, the Project Leader for

Ballblazer who talks about
providing the player with an
alternative reality.

98 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

)

PILLS

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simulation

48K./PECTRUM +,

DORE

MSTRA

achre Formats

JANUARY 26, 1986

LOUISIANA SUPERDOME, NEWORLEANS

Ocean Software Limited, 6 Central Street. Manchester M2 5NS. Telephone: 061-832 6633. Telex: 669977 Oceans G.

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1985 (Mastertronic)

22,982 Neil Rolls, Wethersfield,
Essex

20,579 Jason Pulfer, Bury St Eds,
Suffolk

19,250 Stephen Sherlock, Wirral,
Merseyside

APF (Pacrarlp)

9,950 L/CPL John Paget, Lad Reme
BFPO 41

1,820 David Charles, Leicester

ACTION BIKER/CLUMSY COLIN
(Mastertronic)

268,452 Adrian Webberley,
Crowborugh, E Sussex
267,139 Colin Box, Brampton,
Cumbria

266,133 C Roberts, Midlesbro',
Cleveland

BATALYX (Ariolasoft)

82,483,150 Ansel Lawrence, Port
Talbot, West Glam
6,365,420 Dan Williams, London
5,630,800 Julian Rignall, ZZAP!

100 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

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ZZAP! 64 February 1986 101

December's issue of ZZAP! offered up three competitions and a
ZZAP! Quiz, which proved extremely popular. The ROBCOM
competition winners are not printed here because super-efficient
Gary Liddon gave the details to Robcom so they could send the
prizes out immediately — but he did so before this poor,
downtrodden comps minion had a chance to see them! Try and get
them to younext month — Liddon permitting.

CRAZY COMETS!

Martech's Crazy Comets
competition was a wordsquare
and received a huge mailbag for
this jolly shoot em up with its
H ubbard music score. 50
winners, each getting a copy of
the game are . . .

Robert Askew, W SUSSEX, RH105HP; Biky
Bahra, MIDDLESEX, TW3 2RB; B Barnes,
SUFFOLK, IP30 9NX; PA Boggis, ESSEX,
C03 3DY; J Bosworth, LONDON, SE6 1UU;
Martin Breen, SCOTLAND, FK10 2QU; D
Buckley, BERKS, SL1 1NH; S Burns, Gt
Wakering, ESSEX; Brian Calder,
LANARKSHIRE, ML3 7PR; Paul Caul,
MERSEYSIDE, L46 6BU; Wai Sui Chan,
BELFAST, BT9 7FN; PA Corner, Chichester,
W SUSSEX; S Dale, YORK, Y04 1ET; Paul
Simon Davies, BERKS, SL6 3BA; Alex
Ekonomou, LONDON N17; Gavin
Lonsbrough, CLEVELAND, TS8 9HX;
Darran Griffiths, MID GLAM, CF44 7BL; T
Halstead, LANCS, FY5 2NE; Ryan
Hemmings, HERTS, SGI 4DU; Lee Hickin,
WARKS, B80 7PJ; S Hickson, YORKSHIRE,
LS11 7DG; Jason Jones, SOLIHULL, B92
7AE; Captain Khalid, LONDON E13 OSN; SJ
Knowles, Nr Huntingdon, CAMBS; Ngan
Lam, Mid Glamorgan, S WALES; Steve
Noel Li Yoo Foo, LONDON SE14 6QQ; D
Lloyd, Tarporley, CHESHIRE; Phil
Lovegrove, HANTS, P04 8PX; C McAleer,
GLASGOW, G73 3QY; G Millard,
DERBYSHIRE, DE55 4LU; Arif Mohamed,
Crawley, W SUSSEX; , Lee Morris,
BIRMINGHAM, B72 1NP; Kevin Murphy,
FIFE, KYI 10X; David Pawson, KENT, DAI
3QD; PA Rhodes, DERBY, DE7 3PS; Duncan
Roddis, S YORKSHIRE, S60 3SZ; Michael
Shaw, W YORKSHIRE, WF17 8JL; Mark
Simmons, CLEVELAND, TS3 8EG; Phillip
Simms, DURHAM, DH1 2UJ; M Steele,
LIVERPOOL, L8 4UT; D Stephens, BERKS,
RG4 7NT; Darren Stokes,
LEICESTERSHIRE, LE9 8HJ; RM Thomas,
SUFFOLK, CB8 7RX; Terry Townshend,
NORFOLK, NR29 4AP; Randeep Virdi,
LONDON, SW16 4QH; Andrew Webb,
SCOTLAND,AB1 6YE; Lucas Whittaker,
DYFED, SA44 6LW; J Wiggell, HANTS, SP9
7SP; David Williams, MID GLAMORGAN,
CF38 1TB, David Wroe, W YORKSHIRE,
HD7 3HG.

TOPPER THE
COPPER

Spotting the differences in
English Software's Topper The
Copper comptetition earned 50
lucky winners a copy of the
game, and they were . . .

Darren Aspinall, YORKSHIRE, DN6 8RZ;

Richard Ball, HERTS, EN11 9PY; Stuart
Barker, SHEFFIELD, S8 8SP; Nils Blum,

ESSEX, CH13 2NE; Mark Brewer, SURREY,

KT9 1 JP; David Buckley, BERKS, SL1 1NH;

S Bunting, DERBY, DE4 1BH; M Burgess,
LANCS, OL12 8BH; Andy Cobain, HERTS,

SGI 2NJ; Paul W Cook, CO DURHAM, DL14
6XA; Philip Crocker, DERBY, DE7 1RH;

Sean Curry, LONDON, N4 4EL; R Cutmore,
Colchester, ESSEX; Christopher Davis, Co
DURHAM, DL14 8JZ; Stephen Dunne,
BLACKPOOL, FY1 4QD; David Duxbury,

102 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

CUMBRIA, LA14 5HH; Richard Fisher,
DERBY, DE3 4FL; S Frost, LINCOLNSHIRE,
LN6 7ES; Andrew Huntley, CO DURHAM,
DH8 OPP; Ian James, SOUTH WALES, SA13
1BR; Phil Jones, LEEDS, LS26 OEJ; B Jones,
DERBY, DE11 9LS; DR Kelham, DORSET,
BN3 1AL; Jason Kennedy, MERSEYSIDE,
L32 9QT; Rober Kingham, LONDON, E17
9EL; Garrard Kitchen, CLWYD, CH5 4LW;
Finlay MacKenzie, SCOTLAND, PA86 OTR;
CPL. J McEwan, DC SON RE, BFPO 102;
Craig Moore, LANCS, BB9 6EZ; Kevin
Murphy, FIFE, KYI IPX; Stuart Oliver, W
MIDS, DY3 3LF; Kevin R Opala,
NOTTINGHAM, NG4 3PD; P P, 560 Tyburn
Rd, BIRMINGHAM, B249RU, Rajesh Patel,
LONDON, E12 6PQ; Mark Patrick,
SCOTLAND, EH19 2BA; Ricky Pattison,
NOTTS, DN22 6ND; Stuart Pinson,
STAFFORDSHIRE, B78 3SS; Charles
Round, WOLVERHAMPTON, WV10 OAG; J
Rennison, SCARBOROUGH, Y011 3EW;
ML Rodrigues, KENT, DA5 IPX; Carleton
Shaw, LONDON, N10 3HT; S Shelly,
GLOUS, GL7 1DX; KM Smiles, TYNE 8t
WEAR, NE25 8RE; Kevin Sullivan,
W.SUSSEX, BN13 3LN; CPL MA Tomic,
BFPO 1; Ian Thompson, W SUSSEX, BN12
4EQ; Andrew Tinning, N. YORKSHIRE, HE3
1HY; Bob Watson, BEDS, MK40 3EE;
Darren White, TYNE & WEAR, NE8 4PY;
Gary Willis, DEVON, TQ1 1PZ.

THE SECOND ZZAP!
QUIZ

Our second ever ZZAP! Quiz
resulted in a massive turn out —
seems lots of you know more
about past issues of ZZAP! than
we do — having carefully made
a printout of the answers at the
same time as writing the
uestions, it came as a bit of a
aunting prospect to realise the
piece of paper had been lost!
Gary Penn took several hours
working out the correct answers
all over again. Anyway, first
three out of the bag each get £25
worth of software and a ZZAP!
T-shirt, and they were . . .

I Benjelloun, HERTS, AL8 7QP; Darren
Crawley, WEST MIDLANDS, B68 90B;
David Hancox, COVENTRY, CV7 8 AX.

The Runners-up (T-shirt): Jason Hart,
WALES, CF6 4LE; Stephen Medcraft,
ESSEX, SS9 8BP; Shane Stokes, Dublin 16,
IRELAND.

Congratulations to everyone
who won something — more
next month!

!«

... :

mmm

How to enter your challenge

1. State games and scores clearly on the form provided (or a close
copy). You can give fewer than four games if you wish.

2. State level achieved at the end of each game, either the wave
number (if possible), rating or some indication of how far you went
into the game along with the time taken to complete the game.

3. In the space provided write further details about the game which
might help to confirm your score. If it's an arcade adventure then

write the percentage and if it has a time limit or bonus then state
how long was left and what bonus was awarded. Other details
include things like the game crashing because of the high-score
achieved or whether the game resets at a certain point. Any other
relevant details will be useful.

5. Post your entry to: Zzap Challenge, Zzap! 64, iPOBox 10, Ludlow.
Shropshire, SY8 1DB

And yet another update on how the ZZAPI/CRASH/AMTIX! Dr Barnardo and
Action Group charity parachute jump is progressing. C'mon people, we need
your votes to push some of our staff out of a high-flying plane — they want to go
— they really do . . .

I suppose that it was inevitable
thatthose who didn't really want
to jump should attract the most
votes. ZZAP's very own Mr
Rignall seems to be at the top of
the list and he is very concerned.
When he asked me how he
should go about getting out of
this mess I suggested that he
should try being pleasant to
people which would result in his
being ignored. Of course the
easier alternative would be to
send a few votes in himself, to
try and work his way down the
list. He putthe proposition to his
bank manager who simply ref-
used to advance Julian the
necessary funds. Strange thing
was, the very next day we had
some votes from a bank man-
ager, for Julian!

Franco Frey, The Newsfield
technocrat, is more than a bit
disappointed that he is lying
only eleventh in the jump table. I
am a little surprised by this as
Franco writes quite a lot for all
three magazines, mostly on
graphics packages, so he really
deserves to considered. Some-
one at the last ZX Microfair
really put his finger on Franco's
problem, when he declared that
Franco 'was a really nice guy'.
The voting trend seems to be for
the Newsfield equivalent of a

video nasty, hence the strong
showing by the likes of Gary
Penn, Julian Rignall and Robin
Candy. Send a nice guy aloft —
Vote for Franco.

While we are on the subject of
video nasties that reminds me of
Mr Candy, who in truth is a good

bloke, he's just misunderstood.
There seems to be something of
an ego battle being conducted
between Messrs Candy and
Mangram. Each of them see the
number of votes as a measure of
popularity. This has naturally
put Lloyd in a very difficult pos-
ition, he isn't keen to allow his
frail body to be ejected from the
back of a Hercules. He is, how-

ever, just as determined not to
be shown up by 'that little
jumped up poke person'. The
CRASH Editor Graeme Kidd
seems to be attracting more
votes than he bargained for, so
many in fact that the worried
man was caught actually trying
to edit the jump table. I have
now taken steps to ensure that
the table is kept where Graeme
can't find it, on his desk.

The software industry contin-
ues to donate prizes. Among the
latest contributors are Ocean,
The Hit Squad, incentive and
Micromega. The boys from
Micromega, Neil Hooper to be
exact, sent us a superb letter and
what must be World's most
awful joke, so appalling in fact
we feel that it would be irres-
ponsible to print it. We can, how-
ever, make it available to anyone
daft enough to want to see it —
for a mere five votes a read. And
yes Neil, we would like to hear
the one about His'n'Hercules.
The Ram Jam Corporation have
promised to send us a bumper
box of prizes and a respectable
block of votes. A sudden burst of
generosity perhaps? Well not
entirely, it seems AMTIXI's Sean
Masterson has upset them. Ram
Jam, far from being a bunch of
wallies, quickly calculated that

sending a substantial number of
votes for Sean would be a lot
cheaper than paying the train
fare for their heavy mobto come
all the way up from London.
Smart.

Even John Edwards, the client
liaison person, has collected a
vote! As yet I have been unable
to track down the source but
suspect that it may have come
from an advertising agency, if
so, send more. The Army would
be truly grateful of the opportun-
ity to test the lift capacity of a
civilian-laden Hercules. I can
think of no better way than by
sending John, Graeme Kidd and
Gary Liddon.

Remember, whoever you chose
as a victim, never forget that
every penny you send will go
towards making a handicapped
person's life easier.

This months voting recommen-
dations:

FRANCO FREY because he's daft
enough to really want to do it,
and GARY LIDDON because he
thinks he's man enough to.

"C’AoN.Ger
'THPT
Heu>fuL

uaoT

RDU-ihiG;

I want to jump out of a very high-flying

Hercules (He or she may use a parachute at their
own discretion)

THE COMPETITIONY BIT

Name three flight simulation games

I enclose a donation of £ (minimum of £1.00) ^

and no coins please. We get charged for receiving
them. (2)

I am frequently known as

and can be reached at

Postcode

SEND YOUR VOTES AND LOOT (NO COINS!)
to:

WEEeeeee SPLAT! PO BOX 10, LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE, SY8 1DB

In fifteen words or less, using your skill and judgement
and a pen, complete the phrase below in the most apt
and original way:

I WANT GARY LIDDON TO JUMP BECAUSE

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■**

ZZAP ! 64 February 1986 103

vj>

v/»

STRATEGY

KILLING FOES FOR PEACE

First column of the new year and it appears the powers
that be have decided to give me a 'comer' of my own. It
makes sense really as I've been doing specialist strategy
reviews and essays for a few months now and it seems
they've gone down relatively well. As I've stated in
previous issues, there are plenty of good strategy games
to review. Eventually, I hope to get to see some SSI titles
via US Gold but that depends on whether Mr Penn can
remember to get on to his contacts there during the next
month (hint). In the meantime, there are a couple of new
games to take a look at, these being Falklands 82 from
PSS and Argus Press Software's The Evil Crown.

One of the more interesting things I came across this
month, was the suggestion in the Sunday Press that
Falklands 82 was distasteful because there is a poss-
ibility that the Argentinians might win. Now, you can
discover my own views on the game later in the column,
but more importantly, my own views on the game —
and indeed anyone else's, should not be based entirely
on whether one side or another could 'win'. Certainly, if
the case was that one or another side constantly won,
that would be a valid reason to criticise a game. But the
fact that over the past few years, strategy games have

earned a certain degree of respect that has largely
eluded other games, makes me surprised that the news
feature took the tone it did. Do the majority of people in
the mass media really want us to believe something just
because it is important to them? I suppose the answer
must be yes.

If the majority of the public as a whole believe such —
after all, what we read does affect us to some degree —
then how exactly does that microcosm of society known
as the Strategy gamer, feel? Is there that feeling of
wrongness because performance in a particular game
was poor? Or is it that one just has to win to gain some
sense of achievement in a genre so evidently a test of
one's logical capabilities rather than the speed at which
a joystick can be waggled? I sometimes wonder.

Problems with any kind of strategy game or indeed
hints and suggestions for play are always welcome (I
don't get a lot of mail, being into this specialist stuff, you
see). If there's enough response, I should be able to print
a useful reference column. So get pen to paper. If you're
reading this, then the chances are you're interested at
least to a small degree. I'm interested in what you have
to say, so let's hear it . . . Until next issue, have hin.

FALKLANDS 82

PSS, £7.95, cass

T 'he new year brings with it
one of the most controver-
sial games since PSS's
Theatre Europe. Again the game
is a modern strategy simulation
and again the company con-
cerned is PSS. This time how-
ever, the conflict is in no way a
hypothetical vision of the apoc-
alypse. This one has already
happened — in recent years too.
Falklands 82 is PSS's attempt to
recreate the brief but relatively
bloody war fought between
Argentina and Great Britain only
three and a half years ago.

Many have felt that the subject
was 'too close to home' and
some felt that PSS's own ten-
dency to include arcade type
sequences into their wargames
would somehow trivialise the
affair. In fact, this is the first
game the company has released
without even the option of ar-
cade sequences. Instead a fully
fledged wargame solely depen-
dent on its ability to simulate the
actions of what many have
called the last of the Imperialistic
wars, has been released.

The game comes packaged in
an unusually small format for
PSS, being only a conventional
cassette slip case rather than
their 'traditional' bookcase
cover. Inside is a comprehensive
instruction book which is well
presented and highly readable.
The instructions themselves are
not complicated and as seems to
be the norm with English stra-
tegy software, it's designed with
the beginner in mind (whilst still
catering for the more experien-

ced gamer). The instructions
detail all the information supp-
lied with each unit and how it
affects play, victory conditions
and all the other game related
material with a directness and
clarity which is fast becoming
one of the strongest points in
PSS's presentation.

Basically then, the game takes
place in the Northern part of East
Falkland Island beginning with
the actual British landings on the
Island. All the sea-sea and air-
sea parts of the conflict are
skipped (except for certain re-
ports which will be elaborated
upon later). Across the section
of Island are ten settlements that

need to be liberated by the
British forces within a given
number of game turns (the exact
number ot which depends on
the difficulty level set by the
player). British and Argentine
forces are split up into different
kinds of units of varying str-
ength. Unit capabilities are Ag-
gression Factor, Defensive Fac-
tor, Movement Factor and
Range Factor expressed in pure-
ly abstract terms. Units them-
selves are displayed in the form
of redefined character blocks.

The screen shows only that
part of the Falklands covered by
the game with terrain markers,
major settlements and installa-

Familiar to us all — the map of the island bargied by the Argies.
Sean says it was 3 years ago (cos he's writing at the end of 85, but
we all know it was 4 years ago now). ^

tions (such as the airfield) and
the four possible landing sites
for the forces. Once the landing
site has been selected and the
forces have embarked, game-
play is incredibly simple, being a
case of following prompts and
making uncomplicated decis-
ions. Airstrikes can be summ-
oned in good weather (as can
support from the task force) and
the Argentinian airforce will occ-
asionally break through your air
defence and strike against one
of the land units (an announced
strike is not necessarily success-
ful) or the task force itself.

Enemy units are hidden until
scouted by advanced allied units
or engaged in combat. One of
the options for the SAS and SBS
units available to the player is
the Reconnoitre option which
will spot ranged enemy units.
However, once play commen-
ces, things become worrying.
Combat can be with any other
unit in range. However, the way
it is handled by the computer,
using say an SAS unit to back up
conventional infantry against an
araentinian infantry unit has no
effect at all. Instead of recog-
nising the kind of sabotage and
confusion a specialist unit
would cause while the main
force kept the large proportion
of the enemy occupied, the com-
puter simply goes off attack
factors and happily wipes out
the SAS and commences com-
bat between the other two. This
reduces your special forces to
the level of recon troops — not
the most realistic of evaluations
by any means.

Proximity and Zone of Control
can also have weird effects if a
cluster of units is located in a
small area. Allocating fire mis
sions from artillery works fairly
well but some of the randomi-

104 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

zation factors for damage re-
sults must be unreliable when
on a clear day, an Argentinian
unit is attacked by air, sea land
and indirect fire, in clear terrain
— and comes out unscathed!
When handling orders for a par-
ticular unit, if an enemy airstrike
occurs (no matter whom it is
directed against) that unit loses
the ability to accept orders for
the rest of that turn. Why?

However, considering the
game requires the recapture of
ten settlements and the success-
ful defense of those settlements
one full game turn after their
capture, there is no reason why
if this is achieved, the game
should have to be mechanically
played out for the required
number of turns for that compl-
exity level while your ships re-
ceive inevitable hammerings off
the coast with no chance of you
taking a part in their defense. Yet
that is exactly what happens.

There is no option in the game
to try tactics like the sabotage or
attack of enemy air-bases (th-
ough perhaps such a feature
would have been seen in the
wrong light by those unaware of
the speculative intentions of the
author). Their is no strategy in-
volved, though. That's the real
problem. This is the first com-
puter wargame I've ever played
on eveiy difficulty level and won
every time.

If this is the way PSS games
are to go in the future. I'm very
sad indeed. Theatre Europe was
excellently presented if a little
weak on the strategy side. Battle
of Britain had the option of ex-
cluding the arcade sequences
and the result was a highly res-

pectable wargame. Having said
that, if you left them in and
played the game with your eyes
shut, it would probably give
more credence to the term
authenticity than Falklands 82.

Presentation 75%

Simply but effectively laid out
and remarkably easy to use.

Graphics 60%

Sharp map of East Falkland
Island but little else. Unit
displays are nothing more than
a joke..

Instructions 62%

Easy to pick up but woefully
lacking in areas of important
details and 'historical' notes.

Authenticity 39%

There isn't any — unfortunately.

Playability 64%

Rather surprisingly considering
the limitations of the game as a
simulation, it's quite playable if
you're a total novice.

Value for money 33%

Far too undemanding and
trivial.

Overall 34%

Despite the fact thatthis isn'tthe
tasteless^farce everybody
thought it would be, it's still
nothing other than a trivial
misguided effort with little to
offer except for the most
unconcerned beginner. I still
find it hard to believe PSS
bothered to release it.

THE EVIL

CROWN

- A PREVIEW

Producer: Mind Games (Argus Press Software),
£9.99, joystick and keys

T his one player game is all
about running a Barony in
feudal medieval England.
It's an icon driven game which
allows the modification of var-
ious factors surrounding the
running of your estate. Apart
from the now fashionable use of
icons, the game employs some
animated sequences (to depict
battles and revolts) and a re-
designed character set adds
atmosphere to the game.

The main screen is split into
two halves. On the left is an
overhead view of the fields
worked on by the peasantry. The
cultivated areas are highlighted
against the forest region. If the
harvests are not too good, it's
possible to select new areas for
farming, using an arrow cursor.
To the right of the screen are

nine main icons which allow you
to alter the tax rate, alter the toll
rate for passing traders; pay
scutage to the king (to avoid
having to send your militia into
battle for him); modify the size
of the militia; give food hand
outs (if the peasants are particu-
larly poor); spend money on
tournaments; check your pro-
gress; continue to the next stage
of the game and quit.

The idea is that from the first
year (1156), the estate has to be
managed in yearly turns. By
maintaining the right balance of
taxes and forces and proving
yourself in the annual
tournaments. The main strategy
part of the game takes place in
the first part of the game where
the allocation of available
resources is planned. The option

to continue is then selected.

The first part of this section
shows a repetitive sequence of
animals wandering through the
forest. The more creatures, the
less efficient the use of labour
and land. A 'go away' icon
allows the scene to change to
the tournament sequence. This
is the only part of the game that
requires physical dexterity. The
player takes part in a joust, and
the top half of the screen
displays the riders approaching
each other. The bottom half has
the jousting score on the left,
and a view of the oncoming
knight on the right. The cursor
now becomes the point of a
lance, itself made to move jerkily
to simulate the effects of the
galloping horse. By the time the

used to convey the result. The
colour of the figures also reflects
how large the battle is. Assum-
ing you aremot totally defeated

two riders meet in the centre of
the screen, the point of the lance
must have been guided into a
position that will result in a strike
against the opponent. Enough
successful passes and the tour-
nament will be won. This section
is particularly difficult to master,
however, so practice will be
necessary.

Whatever the outcome of the
tournament, the next stage of
the game deals with any battles
and/or revolts by the peasantry
that have to be resolved. Ano-
ther option, to pay the militia for
their participation in these
events, is provided. A simplified
graphic sequence showing a
couple of figures in combat is

at this point, the next screen
shows the harvest result. The
greater the harvest the more
efficient the labour force and use
of land. Random elements like
the effects of weather are ac-
counted for by animated clouds
covering the sun. If all is well at
this point, the game progresses
to the next year and the cycle
begins again.

The subject matter is a slightly
unusual one and has been app-
roached in a rather interesting
format. How good its final imp-
lementation on the Commodre
64 will be, is too early to really
tell. However, the minute that's
known, you will be able to read it
here. How's that for service?

ZZAP ! ON A POSTAGE STAMP

MI«S Ot

:G(JAK:.

Wtmm ' Mom

1 Aft?m<S2QF?

wmmi

XSAWfXfv

SSSttaaMf

ME «■»'»« >,(! S>

X«Cv>X*X<-^j

; i^nn'(iii(flgSniww8

For our written records,
every word in every issue
of ZZAP! is saved on a
micro floppy disk, so we
can always find out what
it was we really said! For
the visual library, we have
several sets of issues in
our fab ZZAP! Binders,
normally referred to as
The Bible'. These are
fine, except no one can
find them when they want
because 'someone else'
has always left one hid-
den wherever they last
used it — the usual sort of
thing.

So we were all deligh-
ted when a ZZAP! reader
sent us three film sheets
with the mega-reduced
pages of ZZAP! issue 6 on
them. These are micro-
fiche sheets, the kind
used in banks to keep
your current accounts up
to date. They're also used
in libraries for record pur-
poses, not only for list-
ings of titles held, but also
to keep entire newspaper
pages on record.

The three sheets repro-
duced here at actual size,
contain all 132 pages of
the issue, including ad
pages (no charge adver-
tisers — this is a free
entry!), and despite their
tiny size (a fraction over
half an inch high) every
word can be read with
great ease under a mag-
nifying glass. We can't
promise that the printed
result seen here will be-
have as well, but to prove
the point, we've had one
page blown up (300%)
and you can see that it
works.

ly has its attractions for us
— think how tidy ZZAP!
Towers would become,
and never again would
Julian Rignall be able to
hide away our reference
sources. Mind you, when
it is hidden, the ZZAP!
Binder is big enough to
spot lurking under some
geological strata of pap-
ers, press releases, letters
and the like on his desk —
so maybe big is still beau-
tiful after all!

A microfiche is norm
ally in negative form and
we have reproduced
them here as you would
see them under a micro-
fiche projector.

There's something fas-
cinating about miniaturi-
sed versions of the fami-
liar, hence all those affec-

106 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

tionate nuts who can
handwrite the bible on the
back of a postage stamp.
This isn't quite all of our
'bible' — but the thought
of storing a year's worth
of ZZAP! on only twelve
sides of A4 paper certain-

MAILORDER

Please state name of game, machine, cassette or disk and quantity required.
Enclosed crossed cheque/PO made payable to FIREBIRD SOFTWARE. All
offers are subject to availability. Orders are despatched promptly. All prices
inclusive of VAT and postage.

MAIL ORDER: AUNTIE KAY, ‘FREEPOST FIREBIRD, WELLINGTON HOUSE,
UPPER ST. MARTIN’S LANE, LONDON WC2H 9DL. ‘No .tamp required

The evil Ores ravage
the land of Belorn-yoi
control the only
characters who can
save it. Stunning
landscapes plus
intriguing adventure in
‘Venturescope’.

Ivan the Crusader's
epic quest to end
Rasputin’s evil reign
puts this isometric
multi room arcade
adventure in a world of
its own.

germ

QX-Jb WWRWN

Crazy multi-screen
adventure-failed
Germ Gerry proves his
worth by laying waste
to his victim’s body-
until he reaches the
heart...

Ted’s Great Summer
Blow-Out- over 40
whacky screens as he
tries to avoid
sunstroke, drinks like a
fish and blows all his
hard-earned money!

Four great, sizzling games from Firebird - the all-new Hot
Range. Available for the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and
Amstrad - see them at all good computer stores now!

FIREBIRD SOFTWARE WELLINGTON HOUSE
UPPER ST. MARTIN S LANE LONDON WC2H 9DL

0 FIREBIRD IS A TRADEMARK OF BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS pic

mmm

asasiK?

ACTIVISION, £14.95 disk
ZZAP! rating 97%

US GOLD, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 94%

3. (1) SUMMER

US GOLD, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 97%

11 ( 10 %)

4. (3) ELITE {6%}mm-

FIREBIRD, £14.95 cass, £17.95 disk

12. ( 13) SKYFOX

ARIOLASOFT, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 91%

6. (6) FF

OCEAN, £9
ZZAP! ratiri

13. (—) ROBIN OF THE WOOD

ODIN, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 92%

y">.' •: oi ss ^Xt'

7. (—) WHO DARES WINS II

ALLIGATA, £7.95 cass
ii ZZAP! rating 90%

14. (14) BARRY MCGUIGAN'S BOXING

ACTIVISION, £9.99 cass
ZZAP! rating 91%

i"Cv>SS
:>> \<

108 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

2. (4) WINTER GAMES (11%)

9. (8) PET PEOPLE ( 3 %)

IV. | kJ f > i ■ v/ i vm a I \ /U /

US GOLD, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 91%

. • -. . - 0 -v. ■■■>: -

ZZAP! rating 92%

11 .(5) DROPZONE

UK GOLD, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 95%

25. (—) FIGHT NIGHT (4%)

US GOLD, £9.95 cass, £14.95 disk
ZZAP! rating 93%

‘ IMHEBBEta x h » \ is* *

Every month we give away an amazing £40 worth of software to the first person whose ZZAP! READERS TOP 30 VOTING FORM is pulled
from the bag. The winner also receives a super ZZAP! 64 T-shirt. Four runners up get a T-shirt and a ZZAP! Cap. So all you have to do 1$ fill out
the form below, remembering to put your name and address down, list your five favourite games in descending order (remember they must
be released games that you have played), state which software you would like (to a total value of £40) should you win, and your T-shirt size
(S,M,L). Then send your form in to the address shown.

1. (2) PARADROID (13%)

HEWSON CONSULTANTS, £7.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 97%

8. (7) WAY OF THE EXPLODING FIST ( 3 %)

MELBOURNE HOUSE, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 93%

ZZAP! 64 TOP 30 VOTING COUPON

(Please write in block capitals)

Name

Address

I am voting for the following five games

Postcode

If I win the £40 worth of software, the games I would like are
Game (and software house)

ZZAP! TOP 30, PO BOX 10, LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE SY8 1DB

MMk

-mtm

■•v"

,. . * - '. ..- .''V^

••-’V : W

p!f K

h«v . wA a< .% ;

-v 'Cz+t&i*

21. (12) HYPEI

IMAGINE, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 91%

ELITE, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 69%

BEYOND, £9.95 cass
ZZAP! rating 92%

THE

EVER

QUIZ

IflST (

GET ID CR&P IN I St

mV own umf

QUIZ-

SfWTHE
PlTFt&NCES

BerweeM pictures.

FI ftMP P - THEN
Tick THE/K on

PICCIE £ RMP 5€MD?

IT TO M£ AT; RoCKFoRP'S Z2THP QUIZ
" ^ RO.BOX IO, (-UpTOl/v)

X SfllOP SPS. 1176

* ,

GR€9T

stuff

//iff 1

////

Swr

r ^SS

►V*M

s\l

NAMB

ADDBESS

POSTCODE

ENVELOPE

»n

I/ll

»N»M

r ^ss

110 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

UPDATE:

Marooned on an unknown world, the
passengers of the wrecked liner “Arcadia”
are about to perish in a ritual religious
sacrifice. Since their capture they have seen
nothing of Cross, the man pledged to saving
them, but as the ceremony approaches its
hideous climax...

>s*

THIS

SPEAK

VIL&PRRE/
CALL OFP THIS
BARBARIC
S R ITU At. /

■

ENP

utrr&e.

■

^-STRIKE T-
rpOUJN THE
BLBSPHEMER-
GIVETHE ORPER
.TO CONTINUE///

\ . • •-7

mm* a , >

1 ' .

THE HARSH WARLORP
SEEMEPMORE INTRl&UEP
THAN OUTRAGE P///

m&MZ&a *r*r**z

I CROSS'
COMPANIONS,

' 3IN KIMAS ANP
MANPRELL ERSEP
THEMSELVES FROM
THECROIA/P///

f TOSEETHIS^
I STRANGER PEAL
\ WITH THE
a Altar a

m. GUARDS/// ^

\ y y —

r NO/ ^
PEL W THE
CEREMONV—

/ YCOYIEON/N
L/ 4 THEY'LL K

i f slaughter him/
A we MUST BACK,
UP/

/>JV< ■/ V:'

t* fm

" I.--

- •' ' '

■ "iSB

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 111

UNNF/

IMBECILE /
THAT MCWE HRS
COST you VOUR
HANC? —
THE NEXT WILL

k TflKE VOUR A

^ ucnr,/ ^

r I SAIP> ~
I WILL PASS
. HERE ! A

HOLP / NO MAN ~
POSSES WITHOUT
VIL&RRRE'S LEAVE/

rfUr.

^ 74

| WILL ^
PASS HERE-
ANP You WILL
NOT STOP ME,

But, os the blape scythep

TOWARPS HIM, CROSS

RERCH6P OUT — PNP,,/

i Mti HI

r IT- IT'S ^
IMPOSSIBLE / HE
IS CUT TO THE
BONE - YET HE
HOLPS ON /,'

But

CROSS' METABOLISM WPS R STRHN&E I • TviT > ; -L,
MIXTURE OH HUMAN, VIRUS flNP *1"' ‘>V' „ "

COMPUTER- MflN&LEP INTO ONE RT SraHHHSP.
THE CRASH — Mp wi— jgOzLBB
BM jhbH^His BIZARRE HYBRIP CELLS COULP

jflKl Ss&mm Repair pamr&ep tissue many

wBKFl times faster turn normal - is

- By the Time he reachep

THE SWORP, THERE WHS LITTLE
TRACE OP THE TERRIBLE MOUNP/

STORY BY KELVIN GOSNELL

112 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

: .ii»

•■■■ ■ : : .. • ' * ... .. l_i. -11-L.2 , ;

1WANT

these

PEOPLE.

BACK/T

YOU HflVE^
r SOMETH I N&
THAT BELONGS
TO ME/ ◄
LviLGflRRE- J

r -ANP VOU HAVE
SOMETHING THAT
I WONT, (THINK
.IT IS TIME To

bargain n/

CANCEL THIS ^
CEREMONY
RNP SPARE THE
PRISONERS -FDR
NOW- \ MUST
TALK WITH ^
CROSS ///^ fll

BUTMYLORP/ \
VbU CANNOT STOP
THE CEREMONY/
THE UURRTH OP THE
SOPS UOILL BE
VlSlTEP UPON A
. usanp-_

Soon, on the balcony

OF VIL&ARRE'S PALACE///

THE WRATH

OF VILSARRE
IS MUCH CLOSER^ •
THAN THE WRATH OF \
the Oops, priest- it m
ALSO HURTS A GREAT M
PEAL MORE -THE J
CEREMONY IS ^

CRNCELLEP- SEE TO IT/

r so You
f SAY THAT THESE
GREAT GLOBES
IN THE SKY ARE
OTHER WORLPS
LIKE THIS ONE -
ANP l COULP

\trpvel to A

/ THEM///

YOU WILL FlNP ME FI NOTH ER
SHIP — YOU WILL FlNP IT
\WITHIN 30 PAYS OR YOUR
PASSENGERS Start
^ V flOTME/ — ^

imPOSSlBLE/ ~

WE FOUNP SOME
OLP SHIPS/ BUT
THEY CANNOT a
FLY/ Lm

^ VES -IN A K
SPECIAL SHIP WE
CAME IN one-
6UT IT IS ,
PESTRO^EP, /

ARE THERE ANY MORE SOURCES
OF WHAT YOU CALL- ,

’RELICS' AS WELL AS THE >/
L SITE TO THE SOUTH

r THEN THAT ^
IS WHERE WE
START OUR
SEARCH

yes, aujay to the north,

BUT IT IS IN THE 'BURNING LANP'
FEW MEN RETURN ALIVE - ONLY
THOSE WITH THE BURNING FEVER
SURVIVE- IT IS A LIVING PERTH/

BUT, CROSS'- ^ar
EVEN IF WE SURVIVE -
WHAT OF THE OTHERS - HOW CAN
WE KNOW HE WILL NOT KILL THEM
^THE MOMENT WE LEAVE ? A

ZZAP! 64 February 1986 113

rrr

-ANP WIPE HIS
CITY INTO

NOTHINGNESS

BECAUSE

HE KNOWS THAT IF Y
HE HARMS BNV'OF THEM
I WILL RETURN - U

BNP SO, OS CROSS LEP 3IN
RNP MflNPRELL INTO "THE
WILPERNESS/,,

UIL6RRRE ENTEREP
A PORK FbRBIPPEN
PUNGEON INTHE
BLACK HEART OP HIS
PALACE n/

WAKE

HIM'

X BUT MV ‘ s

r LORP- IT IS ONLV 1 -
THREE VEARS SINCE
iw LAST TIME / ^

-HE WILL

BE flNGRV/.

WAKE HIM ~OR i'll
DOITMVSELF ANP
FEEP VoU TO HI M/

WHY!?

;>'9?W WHV DO VOU

WAKE ME,
VOU MORTAL PO&?
WHV BRING ME A
.BACK TO VonR jm
HELL

KflRRlAN — KflRRlAN

CBN VOU HEAR ME?

‘ IT IS V IL&ARRE/
lN6EPVOU,KARRIAN-

y-HES,

MTIORP,

— THE
BURNING
L.BNCW

IT IS OUR BARGAIN

K9RR1AN/-THERE ,
IS ONE WHO MUST
BE FOLLOWED -ANP,
THEN KILLEP WHEN J
HE FlNPS JK]
SOMETHING -/A

F^then t

VOU CRN 1

Rest again

FOR

* years.,/ j

tr is M

r GOOD — I J

Will GO, “
THERE IS MUCH
lPEBTH THERE -

WHERE
MUST I
* GO?

- I WILL
BRING MORE

114 ZZAP! 64 February 1986

This is Hardball from Accolade. The first in a new generation of game
software that sets the standard for others to beat; if they dare! With^
graphics so large and liteiike and sound effects so real, you’ll^^
believe you really are at the ball park -yes, you can

ByAccolade

For Commodore 64

Cassette - £9.95
Disk - £14.95

Tha Ct^nil^nl

aimosr smeii me nor-aogsi

Sorry, we can't supply the hot-dogs; you’ll

have to bring your own - but everything

else is here to recreate the

atmosphere, tension and

excitement of big time

baseball on your

own small ,

screen.

...Your

r mission as

resistance leader
Michael Donovan is
m to seek and destroy
their Mother Ship
using all the skills
and weaponry at
your command.

All-action, multi-level
Arcade game for your
Spectrum & Commodore.

The TV.
science fiction
series invades your
home computer

Earth is visited by
seemingly human
aliens...

These reptiles soon
reveal their ultimate aim
however.. to take over

Earth and enslave its
population...

SPECTRUM 4 8 K

Ocean Software Limited,
6 Central Street, Manchester M2 5NS.
Telephone: 06 1 832 6633 Telex: 669977 Oceans G

Ocean Software is available from selected branches of:

(S3^),whsmith rJBSrnmwooiwoRm

LASKYS, Rumbelows, Greens,

Spectrum Shops and all good software dealers.

Trade enquiries welcome.

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